Spiral Nemesis
by Qinlongfei
Summary: Six years after Nemesis Crisis destroyed human civilization, the international organization Dynamic Data Defenders has rise to power and tries to re-establish a new order on the Digimon scourged earth. But will Daisuke, his friends from Team Brave, and all the allies they gather in their journey be strong enough to stop a second crisis from destroy both real and digital world?
1. Uninstall I

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon franchise and its characters.

**Author's note:** Without a doubt, Digimon franchise is the most influential anime franchise in my life (Fullmetal Alchemist comes close, but I mainly read the manga, not watching the anime). I still remember it was the fall of 2000, I just immigrated from China to Canada and I speak next to no English at all. One day when I turn on the TV there was Digimon Adventure 02 on Foxkids, and I instantly fall in love with the show despite not understand anything the characters were saying. I watched all the shows till Frontier, at which point I stopped watching TV all together.

With that said, I always want to write a glorious all series crossover to celebrate my personal favourite anime franchise, but I never had an idea which direction I'll take. My first idea was a story where all the main cast live in a world where they exist together, and get missions from some kind of centralized guild to stop rogue Digimon from causing trouble in real world. Kind of like the beginning of Digimon Savors actually (That was before series 5 was released). But still, I didn't really feel happy about this idea.

Then one day, I was playing Majin Tensei 2 – Spiral Nemesis on Super Famicon (in my humble mind it's one of the most underrated Strategy Role Playing game in Super Famicon library, all the way up there with Fire Emblem franchise.). Long story short, it's a story where human live in a post-apocalyptic world where earth is over run by mythological creatures summoned by a portal created by Japanese government. I remember thinking to myself: Geez, this story and the world setting is so cool. I think someone should write a fanfiction for it.

Then it hits me, this is the perfect setting I want my all series Digimon crossover to be in. The setting would allow me to explore some of the darker themes I want to touch in this story, at the time make my characters become true heroes when they over come all the hardship. So many years later, I decided to actually write out this story I have been thinking over for all those years in my mind.

I hope this story would bring some joy to people who read it.

* * *

All he hears are sound of explosion and people's scream, all he can see are fire that's so bright, it makes the night as bright as the day. The smell of charred human flesh makes he want to throw up, if his body is not already paralysed with fear.

This is not the first time monsters from another world invade the one he lives in. He still remember about three years ago when he is kidnapped from the comfort of his home by white, blanket like ghost and brings to that huge imposing figure. With dark colour clothing, a high collared cape and sharp fangs sticking out of its mouth, the creature looks like a vampire from one of those old horror movie. Except it is not a make belief story in a movie, it is a living nightmare.

But it's still nothing compared to this… back then he could still muster up all his courage, and stares defiantly at that monstrosity. But as the city he grow up turns into a warzone around him, he can not even scream as his parents are burned to ashes right in front of his eyes.

"It's ok, little brother. I won't let anything happen to you." he can hear the trembling voice of his sister as she carries him through the burning street, as her tear slide down from his goggles into his hair.

That pair of square shaped goggle was given to him by a man three years ago, after the rescued him from those monsters. He still remember how the man tells him with an encouraging smile: one day, you'll become stronger than I am.

Has he become stronger?

His sister suddenly stops as the ground shakes around them. Turning his head with all his strength, he sees a gigantic tyrannosaur like creature turns its attention towards them.

* * *

A group of five dinosaur like creatures standing on all four of their legs walks alone the broke up pavement. One of them stops in front of the ruin of a fast food restaurant and curiously nudges the broken golden arc with the horn above its nose before joining the rest of the herd. They don't know where they'll be going in this strange land, but they have all the time of the world to figure it out.

They are walking along what used to be a busy shopping district of Tokyo city. Back in its hay day, the street lines up with shops that are filled with latest fashion, most advanced technology, or delicious yet often unhealthy delicacy to fill the gorge of hungry shoppers. Right now, it is nothing more then a ruin claimed by the wasteland.

The curious dinosaur look up to the right side, atop one of the building there stands a creature. The creature appears to stand on two of its hind legs. It does not have fur or scale on its body, but some kind of blue skin tight suit, a gray cloak and a pair of square shaped head ornament that reflect the bright light of the sun. It's not the strangest creature the dino ever sees, but it does have an alien feel to the other creatures the dino encountered for all his life.

The pack leader let out an annoyed growl, and the curious dino quickly follows the pack and continues their journey with the strange creature on the rooftop waves them goodbye.

It's hard to believe six years has already passed since that fateful night which the world would forever remember as the 'Nemesis Crisis'. Well… what's left of this world anyways.

The teenage boy on the rooftop turns his gaze away from the group of dino and back around the corner. A faint yet warm smile creeps up his lips. Despite the entire roof is missing, and only two of its walls still remain standing the boy with square shaped goggles still recognize the ramen restaurant his family used to go after they finish their shopping in the district.

Out of all the memories he remembers the most is Jun's constant whining when going to this place. He remembers how she likes to go on and on about a ramen place doesn't suit a cute girl like her. She feels they are more suited for old men and women in their forties and would rather go to a sweet shop to eat cake. Despite all her complains, once the food is ready she gulps the noodle down just like the rest of his family.

As for himself… the ramen from this restaurant is simply the most delicious thing in the world. He wonders if this is truly contribute by his taste bud, or rose tint by the nostalgia of wonderful childhood memory with his family. But regardless, this little ramen restaurant inspires him to dream about becoming a ramen chef when he grows up.

That is such a different (not to mention long) time ago. He feels more like Kamen rider then a ramen chef these days. Minus the motorcycle or the mask of course…

_Let's face it, you are simply too dumb to learn how to ride a motorcycle._

_Be quiet! Miyako voice in my head._

_Well, excuse me sir! It's not like I'm wrong. Have you forgotten what happen to you the first time you tried to use that build in grappling hook…_

"Alright, mission first Motomiya, I can argue with the real Miyako all I want when I get back to HQ. focus… focus, FOCUS!" The boy said to himself out loud as he shakes away both the nostalgic flash back, and the made up argument he's having with one of his oldest friend. He raises his left arm to his chest, on his left forearm is a wristband computer. With the push of a button a blue hologram pop out of the screen, giving him a 3D view of surrounding map.

Using his right hand to rotates the holographic image, the goggle head boy sees the red signal in what appears to be a shopping mall in the distance. With his destination set the boy turns off the map and starts sprinting and leaping on the roof top, commonly referred to by his follow agents as Defender's highway. The enhanced strength and shock absorption gives to his legs by his suit makes such stunt much easier to perform than one would imagine.

"What's the plan Daisuke?" A child like voice suddenly comes out of goggle boy's wristband computer. Zooming the gaze on its screen, one can see the head of a cartoonish looking, small blue dragon like creature's head on it. He has two small blue appendage perched on his head, and a small V shaped mark between his large eyes and small horn on his nose.

"Simple, little buddy. We knock down the door, get the bad guy, save the day, and go back home celebrate our victory with Shoyu (soy sauce) Ramen. As Yamaki likes to put it: Everything by the number." Daisuke couldn't help but smile at the thought of the sunglasses wearing director of Dynamic Data Defender Tokyo branch. He certainly doesn't expect Yamaki to let him pass his exam after landing atop of him with another boy and nearly breaks his arm in the process.

"Great! When do I get to kick some ass, and bust some of heads in?" A coarse voice roars from wristband computer's speaker, as a huge claw hand shoves the small dragon's head out of the screen.

"Shove out the way you big oaf! Can't you see I'm talking to Daisuke first?" The small, child like blue dragon struggles as he tries to push back the blue claw back. For a while, it looks like he is actually succeeding at moving back to the center of the screen. But then a finger gives him a quick hard tap on the head. It sends the small child like dragon flying off the screen.

"And pop, you are gone." Another blue dragon's head moves into the screen with a smirk on his face. Unlike the child like dragon before, his head has a more traditional fantasy genre dragon look to it with the long reptile face, one horn on his nose and two more horns sticking out from back of his head, "I will get to kick some ass right?"

"Well, I was thinking…"

"Oh shi…" Before his human partner could finish his sentence, the big blue dragon suddenly turns his attention to something off screen. A blue blur suddenly flies back into the screen and latch on to his face. Despite how intimidating the big dragon looks a few seconds earlier, he starts to scream like a scared little child. "Yeek! Not the face! Not the face!"

Daisuke lets out a defeated sigh as his dragon friend falls over with a loud thud. The three of them might be a big merry family but there's no denying of the strong competition between his two dragon friends.

Once again, the small dragon's face moves into screen while blowing his tongue and making funny face. Daisuke couldn't help but think back to the first day they become partners. And the refreshing feeling of have a cold bucket of water dropped on his head by the child like dragon.

"Serves you right! You big dumb bully!" He turns towards Daisuke with a much happier expression on his face.

"Play nice boys, or do you guys want to sit in a circle and sing Barney's song again?"

The small child like blue dragon lets out a shudder. Daisuke lets out one of his usual goofy grins at the memory his trip to America to help his American friend Wallace. During one of the break between their mission to subdue Wendigomon he marathons Wallace's Barney tape collection with all his other friends. It's only a show for little kids, but most of his human friends enjoy the time spend reminiscing about the good old days where they do nothing other than sitting in front of a TV and watch kids' show. Their Digimon buddies on the other hands are… less enthusiastic. His little buddy Veemon in particular, as he claims that foul abomination scars him for life.

"So as we were saying, frontal assault again?"

"Yes and no, we are dealing with a slaver this time. That means hostages, a lots of them. It's also possible our missing operative is captured by him. If I don't at least try to rescue her… well, let's just say Iori will probably kill me." Motomiya says as he lands on the last building beside the ruined shopping mall. He looks around and sees a fire exit ladder on the side and proceed to walk towards it.

"Nah, big D. The little samurai looks up to you too much to actually kill you. He might clubber you hard on the head with his bamboo stick, and make you eat out of a straw for a week though." The coarse voice of the big dragon can be heard from outside the screen.

"And that's better… how?" That very thought makes his heart tingles with fear. Being the impatient boy Motomiya doesn't even enjoy drinking soft drink with a straw, let along the thought of using it to surviving on liquid ration.

Heavens forbid, solid ration tastes bad already but making it mushy only makes it ten times worse.

The goggle head boy sighs with a defeated smile again as he pushes down the ladder and start climb down to street level. "Anyways, the safety of all the hostages will be our first priority. So we have to subdue our target as fast as possible."

"Why don't you just let me squash the little bugger like a bug, or punch him through a wall big D? Much easier that way." The big dragon moves his head into the screen, there's visible scratch mark all over his face. His smaller companion moves to the side and gives him some space on the screen this time.

"Because we are Defenders, our Dogma is…"

"To Mend and Defend, not To Judge and Execute. We must heard this a million times already." Both dragons roll their eyes and recite the oath of Dynamic Data Defender which makes Motomiya let out a chuckle. It's one of the few moments his two friends have perfect synchronization.

"Well, I wouldn't have to recite our oath every time, if everyone's so well behaving on the mission would I? But then again…" The goggle head boy jumps down from the ladder and peeks out from the corner of the building at the shopping mall.

"…It would also make me hypocritical, since I makes Miyako yell all the time." He shrugs with a smile on his face, but in a blink of an eye Motomiya's expression turns serious as he pulls the hood of his cloak over his head.

"Let's get the show on the road, shall we?"

===DDD Log – Nemesis Crisis===

During 1999, an event known as 'Odaiba Incident' occurred in Tokyo, Japan. It lets the whole world know the existence of Digimon – Powerful creatures from another world. The Odaiba Incident attracted attention of all major world power, especially the military branch. What if such creatures can be domesticated for military purpose? This very thought sparked another arms race across all the major super powers.

This eventually result in Nemesis Program developed by Japanese Self-Defence force, a program designed to summon entity known as Digimon into the world through a dimensional gateway. In January 1 2002, Nemesis Program suddenly spun out of control as millions of Digimon enters through gateway all over the world and human civilization was left in ruin. The exact cause is unknown amidst all the chaos followed right after, some speculate it's due to enemy agent sabotage, while others believe the technology was simply too unstable.

===Log End===


	2. Uninstall II

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon or its characters, this chapter also has depict the act of violence and enslavement of human being so viewer discretion is adviced.

**Author's note: **While I don't really care to remember the specific name of band or artist, I do love music. I feel music is something everyone can enjoy regardless of the language it is performed in. While a person might not understand the lyric of a song, said person could still learn the feeling of the band or artist performing it through its tone, it's a reason why I tries to use the name of songs to name my chapters.

I wants to use as many names from Digimon anime as possible, but the name of the song in this first introductory arc is "Uninstall" from the anime "Boukurano" (Which means "Ours" in English). It is a Japanese robot anime where gigantic robot fight it out in cities kind of like the movie Pacific Rim. But this anime has a twist to the usual Japanese super robot genra: All the kids who pilot the robot will die after they pilot it once.

The anime version of Boukurano is about how the a few kids tries to save the youngest pilot (At least that's what I learned from the anime's wiki page), the original manga version has a different plot: All the kids dies in the end, but through all their sacrifice they manages to save their earth from destruction. Despite how hopeless and depressing this plot is, I can't help but feel it has an incredible uplifting message in the end of the manga. After all, everyone only live once and everyone has to die, it's not about how your life end, but about how you make the best of it while you live and how other life goes on even when yours end (Or maybe that's just my demented mind playing trick on me).

Regardless, Uninstall is one of my favourite anime opening song with Digimon Adventure's Butterfly or Fafner in Azure's Shangrila (I'm sure that'll be the chapter name of a later arc), and I recommend everyone to give it a try.

* * *

A big man with muscle shirt places his right hand on a glass container. Inside the container, a teenage girl with black ponytail no older than 16 years old silently stand as if she's having a peaceful sleep. The man silently removes his hand from the glass container and place on his neck as if trying to gently rub an old scar.

The big man pulls out a pistol and sharply turns his body toward his right as he hears the sound of his trap door opens. He take aim, ready to shoot whoever finds his secret hideout. The big man freezes as he realize there's no one by the door.

"Who's there, show yourself!" The big man shouts at the top of his lung, as his eyes slowly moves from left to right, trying to find where the intruder is hiding. Before he finds anything, a sharp screech pieces the air as a orange blur knocks the gun out of his hand.

"Daisuke Motomiya, Defender Master class of Dynamic Data Defender." Daisuke catches his orange boomerang in his left hand as he slowly comes into the view of the huge slaver. He can't help but let out a satisfied smirk as he sees the big man's eyes twitching with disbelief as the boomerang slowly shift into a pair of pliers. Or when he opens his invisible cloak which slowly turns back to grey reveal his presence.

No doubt, he makes a good entrance with all these flash gadget. The tools they use have the mundane appearance such as a jump suit, a grey cloak, a screwdriver or a pair of pliers. But in nature, those gadget they call 'live program' are closer in nature to their digimon partners then the pieces clothing or hardware tools they appear to be.

His expression turns serious as he shifts his sight toward the wall, and sees a dozen of teenage girls suspend in the glass container. His voice also turns cold, to the point even the muscular criminal couldn't help but let out a slight shiver.

"Slaver Johns of the Gamers gang, wanted criminal for enslaving hundreds of survivors and selling them to core members of Gamer in order to host their big Game. Do you come in willingly to stand for fair trial, or do you want me to take down the house with you?"

"Don't get cocky boy, who are you to judge what I do for a living anyways? Don't you self-righteous DDD also enslave those virtual pets you call your 'friends' to do your dirty work?" Despite startles by Daisuke's coldness in his tone, the slaver quickly regains his composure. His words tears into Daisuke's conscious like a sharp knife.

Daisuke frowns as he knows very well this criminal's accusation is true, and it hurts more than a gun shot. Fortunately before he can go into an inner debate on his organization's moral standing he is pulled right back into reality as the slaver bolts at him.

In a way, slaver John's aggression makes him feels more comfortable. Action is more up his valley after all, not philosophical bantering. He side steps towards his right to dodge the burly man's charge. Daisuke could clearly see the smirk on slaver John's face as he reaches for his fluttering cloak. The criminal's smirk quickly mutate into shock as the cloak start to turn transparent and his hand passes right through it.

"Never faced a Master Class before, did you!" Daisuke shouts with excitement as he hits the slaver's temple with a quick jab. He spins his body around as his opponent dazes forward and rams his right shoulder under the slaver to shift the center of his gravity. Holding on to a solid grip, he throws the burly man onto the concrete floor with a overhead throw.

"Take down the house with you it is!"

"Argh!" Slaver Johns yelps in pain as his body twitches on the ground. He quickly reaches into his pocket as a huge metal door opens on the other side revealing three angry looking dino with black collar rings around their neck. Daisuke turns his gaze back to the slaver again, and sees he pulls out a small remote controller.

"Get him!" The slaver yells his order as three Monochromon charge towards Daisuke. He turns his head to the side and look at all the captured girls for a split second.

_Damn, Yamaki really Should stop all the control ring smuggling in DDD. No room to dodge if I want to keep all the hostages alive. oh well… looks like big guy gets some action after all._

"For my move," Daisuke let out a grin as he presses a button on his wristband computer. A white strand of data shoots out of the device and start to coil together besides Daisuke. The data start to form into a blue fist as the first Monochromon is about to ram Daisuke with his horns and nails the unfortunate dino under its jaw. "I summon Veedramon in attack mode!"

"Kick… ASS!" From his fist, the huge wingless dragon quickly materialize beside Daisuke as he roars triumphantly. He takes a earth shuttering step to shoulder charge the second Monochromon and knocks him into the opposite wall. The third dino tries to pierce him with his horn, but he only manages to get slap away by Veedramon's backhand.

Veedramon opens his mouth again and blows out a golden V shaped energy arrow at the dino. The dino screams in pain as the super heated energy ignite his body. It struggles to get up and keep fighting, but he falls down into the floor. The last thing he sees before he burst into glistering white data is Veedramon charges at the other Monochromon on the other side of the room.

The first dino shakes his head as it tries to recover from Veedramon's mighty uppercut. He opens his eyes and meet the goofy grin of a teenage boy with a pair of square shaped goggles on his head.

"Hi there, and…" Daisuke waves his right hand in front of Monochromon's confused eyes as he presses a screwdriver on his nozzle with his left hand. With the push of a button, golden sparks of electricity rampage all over the dino's body. "…Good night."

Daisuke jumps off the dino Digimon's body as he crashes right back into the floor completely incapacitated. Besides him, Veedramon seems to be having fun as he slams the last Monochromon into the wall over and over again.

"Alright kid, fun time is over. Take your virtual pet Godzilla back into that little toy of yours and hold your hands up," Daisuke turns to the right as he notices slaver Johns with a devious smirk across his face. Trying to emphasis his point, he points the remote control in his left hand towards one of the glass container. "Or she gets it."

Daisuke turns his attention to the container Slaver Johns is pointing at. The girl in the same blue uniform walks out of the container. Her eyes are out of focus, and Daisuke can guess why as she has a black collar around her neck. What makes Daisuke frown is the girls is pressing a short blade on her neck.

"Threat a DDD operative with hostage huh… So that's how you got Ibuki. I was wondering how a wimp like you could capture her in the first place." Daisuke let out a sigh as he moves his right hand towards his wristband computer.

"NO! Big D you can't…" Veedramon turns sharply and runs towards Daisuke and the slaver. His hands open, arm stretching out as he trying to stop his human partner from giving himself up. But his body suddenly shatters into white strand of data as it gets absorbed into Daisuke's computer.

"Sorry big guy, a defender can't risk other lives…" Daisuke lets out a grunt before his sentence as slaver Johns digs his army boot into his stomach. He slams into a small pile of concrete debris. Before he can catch his breath, the burly man kick him once again across his face and several times in his chest and stomach.

"You hero type is so predictable. Always chasing after that foolish ideal of self-sacrifice even when it means nothing." Slaver Johns pants a little as he reaches into his shirt and pull out another black collar.

"Oh, I'm not sure about the predictable part. Miyako always wonder how I can be so random even though I'm a total idiot." Daisuke lets out a chuckling sound, but it soon turns into cough. "Actually, do you mind give me another chance? I think I can come up with a better joke if my head is not spinning."

"Joke all you want you little nuisance, it won't change your fate. Those game masters specifically requested young girls for this week's Game but who knows. Maybe one of them would be interested in one of the high rank DDD." The big man waves his black collar in front of Daisuke, as he slowly moves the collar toward Daisuke's neck…

Before he can finish what he's doing, the slaver hears a loud sizzling sound. He quickly turns around and sees all the glass container suddenly opens. Even more, the black collars on all his hostages shatter and falls to the floor.

_What took you so long… oh well, better late then never._

"remember… ME?" Daisuke roars with a loud laugh as he launches himself from the floor. His head meets the underside of slaver Johns' chin as he digs his knee into the burly man's stomach. He wildly swings his arm to form a flurry of punches as he knows he can't waste this chance. With all his remaining strength, Daisuke rises his right hand into an uppercut into slaver Johns' chin as he lifts the burly man into the air. The muscular slaver goes airborne for a split second before crashing down into the floor on his back. Daisuke takes good look at the slaver while breathing heavily. He sees the man's eye already rolled into the back of his head.

"And stay down this time!" Daisuke pushes a few buttons on his computer, a strand of data shots out, wraps around the unconscious slaver and explode into restrains. He drugs his body across the floor, moving towards the confused looking girl in the same uniform. Before he gets close to the girl, a beeping sound comes out of his wristband.

"Hiyah Daisuke. Did that work…" Veemon's holographic head pops out of the wristband, but his happy expression quickly give way to terror as he let out a yell. "You looks terrible Daisuke! Are you ok?"

"Yeah, it worked… and no, I been better." Daisuke lifts his right hand and touches his face where he's kicked by the slaver a few minutes earlier. He can already feel the burning sensation as his face swells up. "But still, no hurries. It's not like I almost got collared, and that means I'm done for or anything…"

"Ah… sorry Daisuke." The little blue dragon looks sad as the two blue appendage on top of his head falls flat on his head.

"I sneak in the building through the vent and shut down all the machines like you told me to. But there's too many buttons and I have to head butt the machine…" The child like dragon rises both his hands up and starts to count his fingers. He frowns as his head goes back and forth between his two hands before finally give up.

"Like… many, many times."

"That's one way to use your head… well, no harm's done. It's not even the worst beating I got. I mean… damn that Daimen, can he sock!" Daisuke rubs his face again as he let out an exasperate sigh thinking about the only guy who knows less about giving up than himself.

"Come back to me quickly, and we'll escort everyone back home."

"Right, Daisuke." Veemon nods his head as the holographic image blinks out of existence. Daisuke finally manages to drag himself in front of the girl sitting on the floor. Her eyes finally find focus as she looks up to meet Daisuke's eyes.

"Master Motomiya, thank you for… Oh my god, are you alright?" Daisuke struggles to not rolls his eyes at how everyone overacting about a few minor bruises.

"Call me Daisuke. I'm on a first name basis with everyone. As for my own well being… if I have a yen every time someone ask that question every time I get a few minor injury…" Daisuke rolls his eyes toward the upper corner of his head as if trying to look thoughtful.

"Actually that's pointless, seeing how we don't use money right now." He turns back towards Ibuki again as he tries to let out his usual goofy grin. But with how his face is swelling up it looks more like a painful gasp. Ibuki couldn't help but let out a chuckle with how he is trying to crack bad joke even after he just receives a savage beating.

"You should treat your injury more seriously Master Motomiya, or it might turns into something more serious." She shakes her head disapprovingly as she slowly gets up from the floor.

"Don't worry about me, I'm as tough as my two dragon partners. But in all seriousness, wait for your back up before confronting a Gamer gang. Both you and Musayomon are formidable fighters, but criminals play dirty." Daisuke let out another chuckle, but then turns serious.

"I'll do that next time. Speaking about my partner, where is he?" Ibuki turns around as she looks for both her Digimon partner and her equipment.

"Yeah… Your partner is currently lying face down in the corridor. I had to knock him out seeing how he got a control ring on his neck as well." Daisuke let out a nervous laugh as he points toward the doorway to the outside.

Ibuki looks shocked for a moment, and then let out a sigh with a sad look on her face. "I guess it can't be helped. Thank you for not deleting him."

"Sorry I can't just destroy his control ring without harming him. I didn't want to alert that slaver by getting into a long fight with a skilled fighter."

"I understand. Good thing you are able to catch this scum, all the survivors will live a bit safer now with Gamer gang's top slaver behind bars." Ibuki turns her gaze toward the unconscious slaver with distain in her eyes. She turns towards all the other captured girls, who are huddling together while looking at the two DDD operative with fear in their eyes.

"We bring them back home, back to Ruin Tokyo of course."

===DDD Log - Equipment===

Digiboy Model 3000

Commonly referred to as D3K by Defenders, Digiboy Model 3000 is a wristband computer standard issued to Defender Master Class for Dynamic Data Defenders' field operatives.

It allows access to Bit/Material transformation interface program 'Spiral Conversion', Storage of up to 30 Digimon for easy transportation, configuration program for other DDD issued equipment, holographic projector and a custom expansion module which let Defender Master Class install his/her own custom program.

===Log End===


	3. Always, whenever I

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon franchise and its characters

**Author's note:** And so we inevitably comes to what I would like to call 'exposition arc' of an else world story. A story arc in the beginning which explains the new background and characters. I would like to take the time to answer couple of questions that come up in reviews

Characterising of cannon characters: Most people seems to notice Daisuke and Veemon are still more or less in character relating to their cannon self rather than turning into angst filled teenagers. That's because I want to make the cannon characters have more believable transformation in 'how they would turn out if they did live through a Digimon apocalypse'. Veemon shouldn't change much at all, considering he is more or less living in Digital World plus all the humans running around. Daisuke on the other hand, is probably the most cheerful, optimistic character in Digimon franchise. When MaloMyotismon uses his illusion attack, he's not affected at all stating he has everything he needs in his real life. I interpret this in two possibility: One, he really is as happy as lets out. Two, he's really good at bottle up his negative feelings and not show it to anyone (since I would imagine he would fantasize Hikari giving him more attention than Takeru at very least). In either case, I think he should still remain mostly optimistic in my story. Of course, there are cannon characters I feel might be more prone to depression or anger than Daisuke, but they would still show some trait of their cannon counterpart.

Daisuke's Goggles: One guest reviewer wonders about the change I make to how Daisuke gets his goggles. In fact, currently in my story he's wearing his square goggles in episode one of 02 (the one he breaks). Since in my continuity 02 story never happens, he didn't get Taichi's round goggles yet. My original plan was having a story arc where my main cast goes back to Adventure's Myotismon arc and have older Daisuke rescues younger Daisuke and passes his goggles to his younger self (I think it's an interesting paradox about how old it makes that pair of goggles since it's been passing down from Daisuke to himself in a never ending cycle). But that story arc is scrapped for something else, so he gets it from an older generation Digidestined than Taichi's generation which I won't go into detail (I vividly remembers Adventure state Taichi's group is not the first). But yes, later down the road Taichi will pass his goggles to Daisuke when he proves himself worthy heir as the child of courage (I guess in this case, teenager of courage since he's 16).

* * *

The entire ground floor of the Shinjuku Twin Tower is build as a reception/operation area for DDD. Soft long sofas line up on the foot of the windows while counters and desk with computer populate the majority of the level. Both young and older, man and woman are busy working behind a computer despite it's only around 6 o'clock while DDD field operatives dressed in their deep blue jumpsuit talk with receptionist for all kinds of information they need.

The headquarter of Dynamic Data Defenders is as loud and noisy as a stock market exchange but Daisuke doesn't mind. A smile appears on his face as he place his left hand on his square shaped goggles. Though he can't remember the name, or even the face of the man who gives him the pair of goggles, he can still vividly remember his warm smile and encouraging words.

_"Will I be as strong as mister?"_

_"Of course." The man kneels down in front of young Daisuke as he takes off his own goggles and place it on the boy's head. Gently rubbing the boy's hair, he opens his mouth. "One day, you will be stronger than me."_

A sharp pain on his forehead brings Daisuke right back to reality. He looks up as he holds his head with both hands, and sees a extremely pissed off Miyako holding her coffee mug in front of her like it's Thor's hammer, "OUCH! What's that for?"

"It's impolite to drift away while someone's talking with you, you dope!" Miyako shouts with one hand on her waist, she then turns sharply back and pointed her mug toward a boy with glasses who's yawning in his seat. "Kenta! I still want the report on Team Shinobu's last mission in one hour! Get on it!"

The teenage boy almost chocked on his yawn before turning his attention back to the computer screen. "Sorry, miss Inoue! I'm on it!"

Being called a dope tend to make most people feel offended most of the time, but for Daisuke when such remark come from Miyako's mouth it just feels right. After all, the two know each other for a long time and she has been jokingly calling him an idiot since the beginning. It's almost like nothing has changed.

Almost as if the whole world hasn't gone to hell 6 years ago.

Besides, after what happened 3 years ago, Daisuke feels he deserved to be called much worse…

Try not to dwell too much on negative emotions, Daisuke shakes his head as he smiles toward Miyako. "Cut Kenta some slack will you? It's six in the morning. You sure makes a great boss lady though."

"Digital Fissures doesn't wait till noon to appear. And besides, if a beauty like me doesn't need to sleep in neither does he." Miyako lets out a grunt as she turns her head back to computer screen, trying to sort out all the different report send in by different team.

Sleeping beauty huh? More like a workaholic evil stepmother. Daisuke thinks to himself but doesn't dare to say it to Miyako's face. After all, Miyako's mug of justice descending on his poor skull is one of few things he fears. "So I guess you like being the operational supervisor here in DDD? I'm surprised when you decided to quit field operation, always thought you'd make Master Class way before I do."

"Not everyone's a road man like you. It's not too bad in the office, always something interesting going on because DDD just happens to bring another major goof ball like you aboard." Daisuke groans at Miyako's tease while a somewhat sly smile starts to creep up her face.

"Besides, another three more months in Operation Support Office and they'll finally transfer me to Research Division. And then I'll get to spend all the quality time with Ken I want." Miyako lets out a giggle before she realises she's lead off track by Daisuke.

"Now, onto your last mission. I'll treat you the dessert first. You brought in Slaver Johns, the most wanted slaver from Gamers gang and rescued a captured Defender. Yamaki is pleased even if he doesn't show it on his face."

"great, now give me the veggie." Daisuke ask with a sigh, knowing the head of DDD Tokyo branch is never easily pleased.

"You brought in about what… a dozen more extra mouths to feed? When we already have major imbalance between production and consumption..." Miyako tilts her head up to see Daisuke blinking at her with a dumbfounded expression on his face and let out a sigh.

"Ok… Let me put it into the kind of words you understand: Not enough food, too many mouths to feed." Daisuke lets out an 'oh' at Miyako's explanation as she rubs her temple in frustration at how nonchalantly her long time friend is taking this situation.

"Ho boy, is Lee going to have a major headache trying to sort this out this mess." She shakes her head knowing the half Chinese half Japanese boy will need to pull another all nighter trying to arrange both shelter and food for the refugees Daisuke brings in. Maybe he'll end up looking like a panda if Daisuke keeps on busting more slave traders, Miyako thinks to herself with a smirk. Miyako tilt her head up again to see Daisuke giving her the saddest puppy dog eye the sixteen years old goofball can make.

"Oh, don't look at me with that sad eye practically saying 'what am I supposed to do, just let them die'? I'm glad you brought that slaver creep in for justice, and I'm also grateful for all those girls you helped. Nice to see someone still doing the right thing in our world you know. It's just… we have a pretty harsh reality." Her expression softens as she meet Daisuke's sad face as she stands up and gently place one hand on Daisuke's shoulder, "Don't worry, we'll figure something out, me and Lee and Ken. After all, that's what DDD stand for."

"To mend and defend." Daisuke nodded as a younger boy with a kendo stick on his back walks through the revolving door and comes up to the counter.

"Daisuke san." The boy give Daisuke a bow, who jump back and fling around his hand aimlessly like a schizophrenic chimpanzee. Iori Hide has always been the courteous boy for as long as Daisuke remembers, but such high level of politeness is definitely out of his expectation. "Thank you very much for helping Ibuki.

"Ah! Iori, don't be so formal! We are old friends remember? And Ibuki is your good friend, so that also make her my friend, and friend helps friend. Actually, how about I challenge you to a word contest? Try to say a sentence with more 'friend' than I just did…" Daisuke nervously looks around the reception area trying not to make eye contact with Iori. His over the top reaction manages to draw some snikers and giggles from both Defenders and receptionist (Miyako included).

"Iori, I haven't seen you in such a long time… two months maybe?" Miyako says with a warm smile on her face as she digs through a pile of papers on her counter. She extends out her arm with an application form towards Iori. "Here for the Master Class applications I presume?"

"Yes Miyako san, I decided to try for Master Class promotion test this year." Iori nods as he takes the paper Miyako hands down to him with both hands.

"Looking at you, getting ready for your Master Class test, time sure flies. It wasn't that long time ago since all of us was Rookies in Ryo's team, Ken, Miyako, you and me. And now Ken is head researcher in Research Division, Miyako got promoted to Operational Supervisor, me of all people a Master Class, and you are getting ready to take the exam this year. I know you'll ace the test, you know what they say after I passed: Any idiot could pass." Daisuke says with his usual goofy grin on his face. "We sure made a great team back then didn't we? Although I do miss the five of us just hang out."

"Tell you what, next time both Ken and Ryo gets a vacation we'll hang out together just like old times. I'll even give you a soda for bring back that slaver creep." Miyako says before she input some command on her computer, a beeping sound escape Daisuke's D3K. "Before I forget, you got a new mission. Take two of our newest Rookies on a long range recon mission for training."

"Me? Can't someone else do the Rookie training mission? You know I only fly solo right?" Daisuke points to himself with a surprised and annoyed look on his face.

"No, all other Master Class are either busy Bits hunting, or expanding our sanctuaries so we can secure some more farmland remember? Besides, you are the one who always lecturing every Patroller and Rookie Class to wait for backup before charging into a problem, isn't this a good time to start building your own team now? You can't run a solo operation forever and those Rookies are showing good potentials you know." Miyako rebukes Daisuke right back with a 'I got you now' look.

"Right…" Daisuke groans in defeat as his own comment comes back and shoots himself in the foot, "So… who's assigned as my partner? Don't Master Class usually gets a Patroller Class as his lieutenant for Rookie training mission"

"Let me see there… Dai…" Miyako stops as she read the name, a devious smile appears on her face as she look up towards Daisuke. "I think I'll let you find out yourself tomorrow, It's more fun this way."

"Oh no, please don't tell me it's him." Daisuke groans some more as he guesses his partner from the incomplete name Miyako let out. There are a few Patroller Class who start their last name with 'Dai'. Still, he could only think one name that would make Miyako has such an amused, not to mention evil smile. It's not going to be much of a team building mission more than a group of walking time bomb.

"Don't be such a cry baby you dope, you are both so much alike."

"No we are not! If you don't have anything more insightful to add then I'm leaving." Daisuke said as he storms out the office, making most other Operatives looking at him with a bewildered look.

"The Human Digimon?" Iori asked as he rises his head from his papers to look at Miyako.

"You got it." Miyako gives him a thumb up behind desk as Iori shakes his head with a sigh.

===DDD Log – Dynamic Data Defenders===

Dynamic Data Defenders – DDD is an international organization rise after Nemesis Crisis. Using Spiral Conversion program developed by the late Osamu Ichijouji, DDD seeks to protect human lives and rebuild human civilization on the Digimon scourged earth.

DDD compose of three main division: Research, Operation Support, Field Operation.

Dogma: We give all our heart and soul, to mend and defend humanity.

=== Log End===


	4. Always, whenever II

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon

**Author's note:** I have to confess, a lots of my 'original' mechanic introduced in this story is not that original at all. The Master Class defender is a cross between the demon user from Majin Tensei II and State Alchemist from Fullmetal Alchemist, and their digivice is a design based on Fallout 3's pipboy 3000.

Being an old school anime/manga otaku makes me feel much older than I should have. I'm only 20 going 30 fast, yet the newer animes after the millennium makes me feel like a dinosaur. I do find enjoyment in reading Bleach and Naruto manga, but only in the sense of watching a train wreck happening in front of my eye way even though I have to admit a lots of old school manga I grow up with are essentially just a different kind of silly in themselves (I'm looking at you Saint Seiya, sigh...).

That being said, Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the few franchise started after 2000 I actually like in a non-ironic way. The story is very entertaining to watch unfold, yet it also convey a deep message without going into the overall serious, joyless, or sometimes even downright pretentious route like certain manga which are trying to make a point. And above all else, while there are depressing arcs in the story, the whole story is filled with uplifting message which inspire reader to do well in their own lives. Hiromu Arakawa Sensei truly does remarkable job with her manga.

While I would just be kidding myself to say I'm just as good, I do want my story to be similar to her stories in that entertaining, yet also uplifting sense.

* * *

Daisuke takes a deep breath as he leaves DDD headquarter. He places his eye on the street outside the majestic twin towers of Shinjuku. Morning sun shines over a slum of ruined buildings and cracked street with people dress in patched clothes or rags surrounding the pride of DDD while squatting aimlessly. It's truly a sign of how desolated the world around him has really turned to, but this is still his home.

They call it Ruin Tokyo for a reason.

The Spiral Conversion program developed by Ken's late brother Osamu allows Master Class like himself to reconfigure special data called 'Bits' into any material they can program. Even with most Master Class working around the clock they still barely scrape by with the food they make. Things such as better clothing, and shelter repair is simply out of question at the moment.

He turns his sight toward the horizon, an array of black obelisk stand tall like sentries around the border of Ruin Tokyo's safe zone. Some Airdramons are patrolling the air space of Ruin Tokyo's boundary and it makes Daisuke frown, remember something the slaver brings up to him during that confrontation.

It's ok to enslave Digimon for DDD's own use, but it becomes a crime when someone else do it.

The double standards are clearly there, from both a DDD vs. Non-DDD point of view, or human VS digimon view.

Those Airdramons are what Yamaki calls 'not rehabilitated', meaning they are being mind controlled by the black collar and haven't been domesticated to be the partner of a Defender Rookie Class. Or choose as a cannon folder by Master Class like him for that matter.

The technology initially developed by Osamu, enhanced by Ken and other brilliant minds around the world allows a Master Class to control up to thirty Digimon minions. Daisuke is one of the few Master Class who has only taken three Digimons at his command. Since the ability of a Master Class is often measured by the amount of his Digimon minion, this is a great failure in the eyes of many Master Class.

Then again, Daisuke is rarely the kind of person to simply go with flow. He only choose a partner when he feels the connection between them. He refuses to use Digimon as expendable pawns like many other Master class.

Daisuke let out a sigh, knowing his self imposed sense of morality is hypocrisy in itself.

Daisuke turns around, looking up at the magnificent Shinjuku Twin Tower. It is the headquarter of DDD Tokyo branch, as well as a converted luxury living complex for DDD personals. In addition, it's the only building in perfect condition within Ruin Tokyo, and it is slowly renovated over the years by all the Master Class defenders using harvest Bits from Digimon.

A building builds by the bodies of deleted Digimon. Daisuke shakes his head at such gruesome detail. He is not one of such Master Class, since the building's conversion is already finished when he passes his Master Class promotion test. But he is just as guilty, for he deletes many Digimon to create food and other necessities for the humans reside in Ruin Tokyo.

With such dark realization, Daisuke turns his back away from the twin tower. Staring at the tower always makes him feels a little disgusted by how cruel human are willing to go to maintain that illusion of past civility. But even more so, he feels guilty and powerless for not being able to change things for the better.

DDD's dogma is To Mend and Defend, but human always comes first. It is not wrong with the world they live in, but Daisuke finds himself having a hard time facing his Digimon partners knowing all the cruelty he commits to their kind for human.

There is a time when Daisuke thinks the defenders from DDD are great heroes, but now…

"Daisuke San." Iori's voice calls out from behind Daisuke's back.

"Sh…" Daisuke places his index finger in front of his mouth and looks serious for once. "I'm trying to find the road of my life here."

Following Daisuke's request, Iori silently walks forward and stands beside him for a few minutes while looking at the direction Daisuke is staring at.

"Daisuke san, you are…" Iori pauses for a few seconds. It seems he's contemplating what to say. Finally, he decides to give Daisuke the hard truth. "staring into a washroom."

Iori's sentence pulls Daisuke out of his trance. He blinks once, realizing his eyes really are focusing in the direction of a ruined public washroom. "You don't say…"

An awkward silence falls upon the two former teammate. Daisuke knows Iori wants to say something to him but having a hard time trying to strike a conversation.

Out of the five member of team Akiyama, Ryo is the experienced leader everyone relies on. Daisuke and Miyako are the loudmouth who both wears their heart on their sleeves. This usually leads to them having heated argument, and Ken would be there to break up their fight.

Iori on the other hand is much more reserved. While he is the youngest member, he prefer to silently observe a situation and only say things when he has something insightful to add. While he doesn't have trouble speak or formulate his thought, his serious nature tend to make him think too hard on his thought before vocally present them.

This has the advantage of conveying his thoughts more precisely to others. Unfortunately this means Iori tend to have some trouble strike up a conversation with others.

"Have you visited Ken this time?"

"Sadly, no. The receptionist in Research division told me he's in an important research project right now and told me to make a reservation." Daisuke shrugs while a frown appears on his face.

"Oh…" Iori nods his head and then turns toward Daisuke. "You were having thoughts on your mind, Daisuke San?" Iori

"Yes, 'thoughts'. Can you believe it's actually plural? And Miyako always say I'm too absent minded to have one single thought." Daisuke forces a smile on face, not wanting to worry his old friend. "Anyway, Iori old buddy, what made you decide to take the test this year?"

From their time in Ryo's team, Daisuke always feels Iori is the one with the strongest sense of moral. He sometimes wonder if the youngest member in the team will stay a Patroller Class forever knowing become a Master Class means a certain level of betrayal to his Digimon partner.

"Armadillomon has been supportive at me trying for Master Class for all these years just like your partner Veemon, if you were thinking about that." Iori looks at Daisuke in the eyes as he moves closer, knowing his long time friend is feeling down, "But it's Ryo who convinced me to try for Master Class."

"Ryo told me that we are not good guys, we are just someone who tries to survive this world we live in and no one should fault us for doing this. That being said, there's a line between trying to survive, and rolling over everyone so we can live in luxury. To ensure we never cross such a line, we need to have the power first so our voices matters to others." Iori said with determination in his eyes, unknowingly clenching his fist hard.

"Yeah, Ryo's a great leader and a great friend isn't he?" Daisuke nodded as he remembers the first day he joined DDD as a Rookie Class, Ryo was his trainer.

_"Daisuke Motomiya, why did you wanted to become a Defender?" The older boy asked with a warm smile on his face._

_"That's easy!" Young Daisuke said as he punch his right fist into his left palm. "I want to beat down all the bad guys!"_

_Miyako let out a slight snicker, Ken gently shakes his head with a smile on his face, but Ryo just nodded. "Very commendable Daisuke, never forget your reason to become a Defender."_

"But both Ryo and you made me sure of my decision." Iori's voice breaks Daisuke's thought.

"Me?" Daisuke pointing to himself, unsure he can be inspirational to someone.

"You never had doubt about becoming a Master Class. Even when everyone thought you would fail. You give your best effort and become a Master Class but you never abuse the power and privilege come with it. You always go for the most dangerous mission, facing dangerous criminals or close Digital Fissures instead of hunting down Digimons for their Bits. You become a Master Class to do the right thing, not for the glory, the material gain, or the luxury life you can have. When I become a Master Class, I want to be one like that."

"Thank you for holding me in such high regard Iori, but you know I become what I am because…" Daisuke lowers his head, but Iori steps right in front of him, locking eyes with him once again.

"Nobody blamed you for what happened, not us, not your sister Jun. If you hadn't went to fight that rampaging Digimon with Veemon a lot more people would be hurt or even killed, including Jun. So you have to stop beating yourself over and over for it."

Yes, but he should have done things better so Jun won't get hurt. But Daisuke doesn't want to worry his friend even more. Besides, he's Daisuke Motomiya, putting on a brave face and stay positive is what he does the best. So he just smile and nod at Iori. "Thanks, I'll remember that, after all…"

He turns around, stretching his arms out and let out a yawn. "I have someone who look up to me now, don't want to soil my good name and awesome image now do I?"

"I know DDD's dogma is To Mend and Defend humanity, but let's find a way to build a better world for us all. Human, and our Digimon partners."

"Yes, Daisuke san."

===DDD Log – Spiral Conversion===

The program developed by the late Osamu Ichijouji. It is a set of algorithm which allows an user to reconfigure special data strand named 'Bits' into any elements known to man.

Rules:

1. For any material create, equal value of Bits must be consumed

2. Spiral Conversion can create organic material but not create 'life' (Being with sentience)

3. Materials already created by Spiral Conversion can not be re-convert, or returned to Bits

===Log End===


	5. Always, whenever III

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon

**Author's Note: **Those who give me feedback on my story seems to generally feel I got Daisuke's character right despite the world he lives in. This chapter probably serves as a better demonstration of his character since it features more of his thoughts, and those who read it would probably notice he does have more negative thoughts compare to his cannon self.

I want to write characters who has believable transformation from their cannon self to their else world self in my story. That means some characters would appears to be largely the same compare to their cannon self, while others would be very different which might lead to readers believe I'm writing them OOC.

A big example who acts very differently from their anime cannon is Takato, as this chapter demonstrate, the 16 years old Takato is very different from the innocent dreamer of Digimon Tamers. Of course, since he's one of the main character of my story his character would gets showcased better in one of the later chapter when I'm focusing on him.

Since I'm only human, I can't say I interpreted everyone right (especially consider my English was not that good when I was watching the show). But how those characters act in my story is how I interpret they will turns out in their teenage years, if their world is destroyed by Digimon when they are young.

* * *

Daisuke slowly walks along the street of Ruin Tokyo with a absent-minded look on his face and both hands behind his head. A part of him long to see his older sister and only remaining family member after Nemesis Crisis. Another part of him too ashamed to face her.

It's thanks to his sister he's alive after Nemesis Crisis, as she carries the shocked boy to safety when their parents disappeared in a searing fire ball in the blink of eye after telling them both to keep running. Daisuke still vividly remembers how Jun's tear running down his face while holding him as firmly as possible with her shaking hands.

And what he repays Jun with? Nothing but pain and suffering…

Daisuke stops at Matsuda Bakery along his travel. He waits patiently for some newly baked bread while enjoying the scent of wheat escaping through the oven. The goggle headed defender is not that well known for his patience, but after what happened three years ago he has been consciously working on being more patient and.

Daisuke gives the son of Matsuda family a smile and a nod as the other goggle headed boy comes out his room to help his parents with chores in the bakery. The boy quickly shift away from Daisuke's gaze.

Daisuke always find the Matsuda boy to be a bit peculiar and it's not just because he's what people would call a 'shut-in'. After all, there's no longer school to go to after Nemesis Crisis. Some young children and teenagers enlist in DDD to be trained as either a field operative or work a desk job. The other stays home like the Matsuda boy, and becomes an apprentice to their father or mother's trade.

Daisuke finds the Matsuda boy – what's his name again? Takato is it? – to be peculiar because how he acts around DDD operatives. It might be the flashy uniform, but most children look up to the DDD operatives (especially someone who achieves Master Class status). It's very rare for someone around Takato's age to act like he's avoiding the DDD operatives instead.

But before Daisuke can think more on the matter, the bread he orders is ready to go. He exchanges the breads with flour and other ingredient he converts by Bits as payment before continues his way back home. The kids living near his home love bread from Matsuda family. Good food are amongst few simple things everyone can still enjoy in life.

Refugees see the spiky haired goggle boy with Master Class' signature grey omnicloak, a few give him a warm smile and wave while most quietly turns away and whispers to each other. Usually the residents of Ruin Tokyo shows nothing but utmost respect to Master Class either out of gratefulness or fear but Daisuke doesn't have a very good reputation. In fact, other than one Master Class who is kicked out of DDD, he's probably the least popular Master Class in DDD's brief 6 years history.

He is too much of a goof to be feared by all, and too much of a dead weight in term of supply contribution to be respected by most. Taking down dangerous criminals around Tokyo is nice and all, but it does little to help the people already safe (relatively) in Ruin Tokyo safe zone. His reputation of being friendly with his Digimon partners are not exactly helping his image amongst most people either.

6 years after Digimons scourge the earth, most people are still resentful that world as they know gets blow to kingdom come. Despite the whole incident is humans' fault to begin with.

A half collapsed house with red roof silently sits near the boundary of Ruin Tokyo facing a dark spire. The wall of the house uses to be mostly light yellow, but a lot of color is already peeled, exposing the ugly naked board underneath what remains of the thin skin of paint. There are also holes in the wall covered by sheets of blanket, some of them big enough to let a full grown man pass through like a makeshift door. No doubt it uses to be the home of a middle class family. Perhaps a salary man working for one of the big corporation located in Shinjuku. Now it's the refuge for a few families, some orphaned children who lose their parents during Nemesis Crisis, as well as Motomiya sibling's home.

Some adult are cleaning up rubbles of collapsed houses in the area, those space cleared out will be used to build shacks with any material the scavenge team find, or turned into farm field after a Spiral Conversion turns it fertile… if one of the Master Class in DDD can still spare the Bits.

Too much Bits are used to make the black obelisk Dark Spires in order to secure new safe zones, but not enough is being used to fix the area they secure. Daisuke sometimes wonders if Yamaki has become too greedy with the land grab. In the end it's the Master Class working in the field that has the freedom to establish safe zones as they see fit and it will reflect in their annual report. But Daisuke still thinks DDD should add some more regulation for such action instead of continuously encouraging it.

It's not only the Bits that's stretch thin, DDD is also slowly having a shortage in term of manpower to defend its controlled area. This leads to more enslavement of Digimons, who for the most parts are creatures just living their lives in a world they don't fully understand. It isn't all that long time ago when his own Digimon partner is aimlessly wandering the wild land outside of Ruin Tokyo, completely confused and lost.

Of course, it's a bit hard to explain to the family of the victims who are step into human paste, or incinerate into ash during a crossfire that Digimons are in fact not demons spawned from hell just to make their lives miserable.

Daisuke shakes the unhappy thought out of his head, as he hears laughter of children from inside the yard. He's not about to emit a gloomy aura around the young children. He peeks inside from broken concrete wall and sees a group of five children playing with a half deflated soccer ball while others play on the small playground he builds for them with junks recovered around the area. Some of them younger than 6 years old.

For the moment, Daisuke's mind is filled with wonder of life can still be born into this broken world and not on dreadful thought, such as how to find more food for those new life.

A young woman is sitting in a wheelchair is reading a story to some children huddled around her, not yet noticing Daisuke's presence.

"There lived a good couple who were married for many years. They were kindly people and loved each other dearly, but one unhappiness marred their life. They were not blessed with a child…"

"Big brother Daisuke!" A young boy with long fringe who just passes the half deflated soccer ball look up and saw the teenager standing outside the wall. He and his friends abandon their game and happily run toward the older boy who put a wide goofy grin on his face as he also move closer to them. "You are back!"

"Yep, that means freshly baked bread from Matsuda Bakery for everyone! Help me distribute it to everyone will you Mamoru?" Daisuke kneels down in front of the boy, handing one bag to him before gently moving his hand through the boy's hair. Mamoru cheers and thanks Daisuke, before running to his friends and handling the bread to everyone with Daisuke.

"Don't we get none?" Veemon's head pop out of Daisuke's D3K hologram.

"Of course you do." Daisuke laughs as he release both Veemon and Veedramon and hand them both a bread, "Play nice boys. Sorry big guy, you only get one like everyone else."

"It's the thought that counts Big D. Besides, I'm too kickass to mind such little things." Veedramon pops the bread into his massive mouth, closing his eyes and savours' the sweet taste of wheat and cinnamon.

"Took you long enough this time." Jun smiles as she places the closed story book on her laps and rolls her wheelchair forward. "Hard mission?"

"The hard part was tracking down the wanted this time, but I had help." Daisuke says as he hands another bag of bread to one of the children who was listening to Jun's story, before flashing the bicep on his left arm. "Nothing your baby brother can't handle!"

"Yes, yes, my baby brother is the greatest hero in DDD's history. Don't trip over your own, twerp." Jun said as she picks up the book, and slap Daisuke's waist with it. She used to slap the story book on Daisuke's head whenever he acts too goofy. But with how tall her baby brother has grown, and she's constantly sitting in a wheelchair it's simply no longer possible to slap a book on his head.

"Ouch!" Daisuke gives a fake yelp as he bend his back and hold his waist in a comical fashion. "I swear sis, you are much scarier than all those psychopath I faced in wild land combined together."

"Good, so you know how to respect and obey your older sister."

Being a Master Class means Daisuke and his sister Jun can leave the sorry looking house and move into a luxury apartment in the twin tower. But Jun refuse to go, saying the travel from twin tower to see the children is almost impossible for her wheel chaired status and Daisuke is not going to leave his sister and live in selfish luxury by himself.

"Master Daisuke, I trust your business has been well?" A small grey bear with a deep blue trucker hat on his head, and blue strap on his body and a pair of sleepy eyes asks. He comes out the house through a hole in the wall while holding some clean, folded bed sheets.

"Yes, Bearmon. I trust you are taking good care of my sister while I'm away." Daisuke stands up right and gives his third Digimon partner a nod while smiling. Despite Daisuke protest again and again not to address him as 'master' Bearmon still acts polite and courteous all the time. After a year, he gives up and just accepts that's part of his partner's personality.

"Miss Jun hardly needs my help to take care herself. I mainly spend my time helping chores in the house. And with the children." Bearmon said with an apologizing look at Daisuke.

"Oh, don't be sorry to the twerp Bearmon, you are a hundred times more useful than him even when he's back home." Jun let out a laughter while slapping Daisuke's waist again.

"Sorry about that sis. It's not like I'm constantly fighting bad guys while I'm away and want to relax a little when I'm home." Daisuke rolls his eyes at Jun's comment.

"Oh sorry, I forgot how tough your job was. Wait… who was the idiot that said his work is easy? That's right, yourself!" Jun rolls her own eyes at Daisuke's remark.

"Big brother Daisuke." A boy gently pulls Daisuke's right hand. He turns around, and sees the boy holding a toy train. The train's rear wheel has fall off, "Can you fix my train?"

"Let me take a look." Daisuke says as he kneels down and takes the toy train into his own hands, turning it around and immediately spot the problem: the axle for the rear wheels is snapped in the middle.

He turns, and look around the yard, spotting a fallen tree branch that's straight and about same size in diameter. Daisuke picks up the branch and takes out a screw driver like device from his jumpsuit's pocket and pushes a button. A small force field forms in front of the screw driver and he use it like a knife to cut the branch into suitable length before returning his screw driver into his pocket.

He carefully puts the new axle into place and pop the wheels on the tree branch and gives the toy train a test run on the dirt with his right hand. The toy train runs, despite not as smoothly as before. With a content smile he hands the train back to the boy. "There you go, all fix up."

"Ah… my toy train is all sorry looking now big brother Daisuke. Can't you fix it with your magic?" The boy look a little disappointed as he looks up to Daisuke with anticipation in his eyes.

"I can, but for everything we get in this world, something equal in value is sacrificed in return." Daisuke kneels down and look at the boy in his eyes while place his hand on the boy's shoulder. "If fix something is always as easy as pushing a button we'll forget that important fact, and we won't treasure anything until it's too late. So take better care of your treasure this time ok? For me?"

"Ok big brother Daisuke, I don't understand what you mean but it sounds really cool. I'll take better care of my train this time." The boy nodded as he run off to play with his friends while boasting about the lesson he just learned from Daisuke. Daisuke knows the lesson he tries to teach the young boy is too hard for him to understand, but if he just planted a seed into the boy's heart then maybe one day it will grow into a tree.

And maybe, just maybe, the boy will not make the same mistake he makes when he's older.

Everything we get, something equal in value must be sacrificed is a principle Master Class lives by. Just as in order to become a Master Class, Daisuke paid a lots of effort in return. He just wish it is himself who paid the price to get such resolution.

Why… why must it be his sister Jun who pays the price for him… It should be him that gets hurt for his own stupidity, not his only remaining family. He let a real yelp of pain as Jun brings her story book down on Daisuke's head with all her might.

"Don't you dare be all self blaming today you stupid twerp. How will the children feel if you look upset." Jun says with a stern voice as Daisuke hold his aching head with both of his hands.

"You are right sis, I should have know better." Daisuke turns his head and give Jun an apologetic look.

"Of course I'm right. I'm your older sister, so I'm always right." Jun gives Daisuke a self-content smile, while gesturing towards the children playing or still eating their bread in the yard. "Now go play with the kids, you are rarely home and they wants to spend more time with their big brother Daisuke."

Daisuke turns around, and sees both Veemon and Veedramon has already taken to the children, one better than the other. Veedramon smiles nervously as his body tense up due to some kids begin climbing him like a jungle gym.

"Of course. Hey, boys and girls! Who wants a ride!" Daisuke says as he runs to the kids with open arms. He spends his day playing tag, hide and seek, and giving Piggyback ride to the children.

===DDD log – Bits===

Special data strand which makes up a Digimon's body. It is not yet discovered by DDD research team what the difference between this kind of data and normal data is. But only Bits can be used for Spiral Conversion program developed by late Osamu Ichijouji to construct any current elements known to mankind.

===End Log===


	6. GOUing! Going! My soul! I

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon

Author's note: After that story setting arc, we are finally going into one of the first major story arc. Team Brave's formation. All four main protagonist gets introduced within this arc, and I hope I planned enough content within this arc for all of them to shine.

* * *

He's angry, he's always angry. It uses to be small things that makes him angry, like school regulations. What if he punched some bullies straight in the face, those idiots has it coming. Besides, those wimps from third grade should feel ashamed to be beaten by a first grader.

Some wonder if he's angry all the time because his father is never around. He snorts at those people. What if his father is not here? Out of sight, out of mind. It just means he has to be the man of the family. And that's exactly what he does. He joins DDD three years ago, rises to the rank of a patroller and moves his family from the hovel into one of those apartment unit in the twin tower.

Currently, he's angry at the world he lives in. He's angry at that incident six years ago which most refer to as 'Nemesis Crisis'. All those monsters come from another world like a Godzilla movie goes wrong. Who gives those bastard the right to come into his world and wrecks everything up?

Doesn't matter, he fights back with the only way he knows how: his fist.

See, unlike a lots of people struggling in this world simply because they don't want to die, he still has a dream: To become the strongest fighter on the wasteland.

Right now, he's hopping from rooftop to rooftop on a street where all buildings are about three floors tall. His standard issue suit gives him strength to comfortably complete such task as well as protect him from hurting himself in case he misses a jump. Unfortunately, his partner doesn't have similar luxury.

"Wait up for me, aniki." A yellow, humanoid lizard with disproportional large head and red training band on the palms of his claws pleads. He is desperately trying to catch up to the teenage boy. No doubt, his large head and comparatively short legs make it very hard to jump from building to building.

Oh yeah… him. A Digimon partner every DDD field operative needs to have. Most of the time the little lizard slows him down. But he doesn't mind, the little lizard is at least good for a training partner.

"Hey, it's not my problem if you can't keep up." The teenage boy says with a annoyed frown on his face. He's sure the yellow lizard wouldn't have much problem to keep up if he has done his daily training properly.

And eats a bit less… maybe.

He's been training rigorously for the past few month, since his last fight with his arch rival where he… almost win. He's eager to put his training to good use and beat his rival this time. He thinks back to the day he is promoted to a patroller class while he's in mid air.

_That's… two years ago? He can't be sure since he doesn't keep track of time well. He remembers the young girl with long lavender hair sitting across him in the receptionist desk is only a few years older than him. What's her name again? Kyo or something?_

_Her glasses which reflects sunlight seems to be glaring at him. They are having a heated argument. He wants to let his family live in one of those luxury suite near top floors. Half of them are empty and gathering dust anyway. Kyo on the other hand steadfastly proclaims those are reserved for future Defender Master Class and it's against regulation to assign them to a newly promoted Defender Patroller Class._

_In hindsight, living in one of those apartment unit assigned to Patroller Class is not bad. The two bedroom apartment is more than large enough for a single mother and her two children. And the building still has electricity and running water unlike the rest of the safe zone. But he's simply too angry at the time to care._

_Regulations, regulations, and more regulations. Just like before Digimon blows everything up. Like the school he goes to where everyone sneers at him. Everyone think he's a bad apple after he puts three bully into infirmary office. You aren't allow to break someone's nose even if they start the fight… _

_He remembers getting angrier and angrier. He would probably punches Kyo if she isn't a girl. So his sight starts to wander around the floor, trying to find a target to vent out his building frustration. _

_Then he sees a scrawny looking boy no older than himself dressed in Defender Master Class' signature grey omnicloak. He has a goofy looking square shaped goggles on his head with an even goofier grin on his face. Scrawny is having a chat with another receptionist to his left, occasionally let out a loud laugh. He seems happy. No doubt he's happy to live in one of those luxury suite like one of those hot shot celebrity before Nemesis Crisis._

_The sight of a Defender Master Class right in front of him makes his frustration explode. The Master Class' laughter makes him feels like scrawny is laughing at him. Why does someone looks so weak and goofy gets to live in a luxury suite when himself: the great Masaru-sama, strongest fighter on the wasteland has to settle with a normal apartment unit with his family?_

_He remembers saying something to Kyo, about he can beat any Master Class in a fair fist fight and then starts throwing punches at the goggle head. Scrawny seems to be startled that he's attacked on his home turf as he jumps back. Still, he dodges most of his punches, parrying the rest away with surprising agility while claiming something about he's not looking for trouble. It only makes Masaru-sama angrier._

_After a while, the goggle boy's patience probably runs out. It happens so fast, Masaru still doesn't understand the details. All he remembers is the world around him turns around rapidly as if he falls inside a blender. The next moment he's looking straight at the ceiling with his back on the floor._

_Oh, and the excruciating pain on his back that prevents him from getting back up…_

Normally, a Defender Patroller Class starting a fight with a Defender Master Class would be suspended from duty, or even expelled from DDD. But scrawny explains to everyone he and his old buddy are just having one of their spontaneous sparring. Not sure if anyone believes goggles' story, but since he didn't press charge both of them gets off with a verbal reprimand. Still, it makes Masaru set his target on the goggle boy: Daisuke Motomiya.

"Aniki! Look out!" The yellow lizard's cry suddenly snaps Masaru back to reality. And he comes to the sudden realization he didn't position himself well enough to land back on roof top. Bracing himself best from the unavoidable crash landing, Masaru drives straight into a bunch of boxes pilled in a back alley.

A man with tattered cloth pushing a cart rises his eye brown as he hears a loud crash and sees a couple of cardboard box rolls out of an alley way. He let out a shrug, and goes back to his merry way.

"Aniki, you should have look where you are going." The lizard gently shakes his big head while let out a sigh. He slowly comes down from the building through the metal fire stairs.

"Shuddup! And what's with all those boxes!" Masaru angrily commands as he jumps out of the crashed boxes while spitting out a piece of corrugate stuck in his mouth. Masaru is about to step out of the back alley and get onto the main street when he suddenly jumps back.

"What are you doing Aniki?" The yellow lizard curiously pokes his head out of back alley, and he's immediately drag back by Masaru's strong right arm.

"Get back here Agumon, don't let goggles see you." Masaru says as he slowly peeks out around the corner of the building at Daisuke chatting with two Defender Rookie Class on the street. Both Rookies are around Daisuke and Masaru's age, with one being a teenage boy, the other a teenage girl.

The boy has light brown hair and a round shaped goggles.

What's up with all those teenage boys wearing goggles on their forehead? Is this some kind of fashion requirement?

The boy is currently starring down straight at his own toes with both hands closed together. He has a wimpy look on his face, like he's afraid he'll be burned to crisp if he lock gaze with scrawny, or anyone else for that matter.

Besides wimpy, a red dino like creature about as tall as a grown man with white belly and a black hazard symbol is looking curiously at the corner where Masaru and Agumon are hiding. He seems to notice something strange as his left claw gently taps his own mouth. Whatever the case, he seems to dismiss it as he turns his attention back to the girl who's talking right now.

A humanoid lion like creature with muscles as thick as a tree trunk, and a sword hanging around his waist stand behind the girl like a silent but reliable protector. His human partner has short hair tied into a pony tail on the left side of her head. She currently has a yellow fox or dog like sock puppet on her hand, and faking an angry face as she's talking with goggles.

Wait… those two are the ones he gives a good pep talk yesterday. Masaru slaps his own forehead. Of course those two are the ones he gives the pep talk. They are the newest recruit, and his new mission is a recruit training mission.

"There are three simple rules you have to follow: If you break your D2K, you will spend three days in the cell. If you break your skeleton suit, you'll spend three days in the cell. If you lose any of them… I'll personally kill you myself."

Those are the exact word Masaru says to the rookies two.

"Yep, that sounded like a drill sergeant all right. Never figured he's the type." Goggles says with his usual dumb grin on his face. It aggravates Masaru to no end. So now he's making fun of Masaru-sama behind his back now?

"So you are going to launch a sneak attack now Aniki? That's cleaver." Agumon asks as he struggles to break from Masaru's hold on him.

"No, that's not how a _man_ should fight. I'm just inspecting my enemy right now before I launch my frontal assault. A _man_ always fight fair and square." Masaru dismisses Agumon's suggestion as he jumps out of the back alley street.

Masaru does find some new respect for Daisuke after learning both him and his sister lives in a house outside ShinjukuTwinTower. But still, to be the strongest fighter he needs to defeat every opponent, and Daisuke did beat him in their matches.

"On your guard Motomiya!" Masaru loudly proclaims as he charges at Daisuke.

"Not again…" Daisuke lets out an exasperate sigh as he jumps away from the two dumbfounded rookies and holds up his arms in a defensive stand. He takes a step back while lowering his body, dodging Masaru's quick jab to the side.

"Stop dodging and fight like a man! Take my hits and then punch back!" Masaru shouts to Daisuke as he throws a quick succession of quick jabs, with a few heavy punch in between.

"And end up in DDD's medical bay for bone fracture? No, thank you!" Daisuke says as he takes more steps back while duck to avoid a barrage of coming fist.

Even though his attacks is not breaking Daisuke's defence, Masaru keeps on throwing more quick punches. From his previous experience, he knows well he needs to keep the pressure on the goggle headed Master Class. If he lets Daisuke catch a window of opportunity, he will launch a successful counter attack to drop him on the ground like a sack of stone. Slowly but surely, Masaru can tell his opponent's defence begins to falter. But at the same time Masaru's own patience is running out.

He's not very smart, but he's not stupid either. He knows about the rumours. The Defender Master Classes, and even other members of DDD has been calling him the human Digimon. Some even says mean spirited lies such as he is fathered by a Digimon. While he doesn't know if Daisuke is one of them, the fact he's also a Defender Master Class makes his blood boil a little.

And right now, Daisuke's fighting style in avoiding all Masaru's attack is not helping his image. Since Masaru believe in man should face opponent straight on and stand his own ground without any dirty tricks.

Daisuke tries to parry one of Masaru's punch using his arm like before. Instead of sending Masaru's fist to a different direction his own arm gets knock away and Masaru's punch goes straight toward his target – Daisuke's face.

Daisuke seems to be surprised his defence finally falters as he grit his teeth and twist his head to the side the best he can. Masaru's fist goes right through the side of his face. Masaru misses his target but he does see a tangible reward for this break through.

A single drop of blood flies away from Daisuke's face. Even though he manage to evade the punch, the speed Masaru's fist cut through air also makes a cut on his face.

Seeing victory within his grasp Masaru brings his right arm forward as hard as possible. Hoping to finally send his scrawny opponent flying toward a wall like many he fights before Daisuke. Instead, everything seems to turn gray around him, time seems to slow as he takes a head first plunge toward the cold pavement.

It takes a while for him to feel a crushing pain in his chest like his rib cage is shuttered. All the air seems to escape from his lung as Masaru grasps for air while the world start to go dark around him. Next he notices his face is buried in the pavement. Masaru struggles to turn his head to left, hoping to at least catch a glimpse of what's going on with the corner of his eyes and that's when he hears someone howling like a banshee.

"..Son of bit-!" Daisuke lets out a series of painful cries and curses. His right hand holding onto his left arm while he staggers around trying to regain his balance. He suddenly seems to aware what's going on as he turns to face the direction of the two Rookie.

"Sorry about that unnecessary and excessive use of profanity. You ok there Daimen?" Daisuke says, as his turns to face Masaru. Masaru can see Daisuke's face is still a little distorted, possibly from the pain he's currently feeling.

Although Masaru still doesn't know how did the scrawny (relatively to him) Master Class put him into the pavement.

"Twelfth straight lose, aniki." Agumon let out a sigh as he quietly stride besides his fallen human partner.

"Sh-shuddup…" Masaru struggles to get up from the cracked pavement, but his vision start to blur once again as the pain in his chest intensify. His conscious finally gives away.

===DDD log – DDD Field Operatives===

The Field Operatives are Dynamic Data Defenders' field agents. The ones who patrol the border of all DDD safe zones, as well as operating in the wild land to carry out DDD's objectives such as catching dangerous criminals for trial, eliminating Digimons who threat the safety of DDD's safe zones, or closing Digital Fissures to prevent more Digimons coming to earth. There are three levels of DDD Field Operatives: Rookie Class, Patroller Class, and Master Class.

===End Log===


	7. GOUing! Going! My soul! II

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon

**Author's Note:** I have to admit, I was nervous about the last chapter since I was worried people might think I was bashing on Masaru. Realistically (at least as realistic as a TV show featuring real life Godzilla running around from computer I suppose), Masaru would outright Destroy Daisuke in a fist fight with how strong he is but I let Daisuke beat him in their fight.

None the less, I'm not nearly as nervous about last chapter as I am nervous about this chapter since I wrote Takato vast differently than his cannon show counter part. As I stated before, I want to interpret how those character would turn out if Digimon Apocalypse does occurs in their lives. I think: Takato, being one of the most, if not THE most innocent dreamer from cannon show, would be hit the hardest with a Digimon Apocalypse, thus the reason why I choose to portrait him very different from his cannon self.

Of course, since I'm doing my own interpretation of the character, it is very possibly different than everyone else so I'm not sure how successful I manage to write him. That being said, I hope all the Takato fan who happens to read this story could still find some enjoyment as they read it. If nothing else, please do take into consideration I don't hate any main character from the franchise (well, I used to convince myself I need to hate Takeru since I'm a Daisuke super fanboy. But thankfully I grow out of that childish trait a large number of Daisuke super fanboy/fangirl experienced at one point in their lives.) and if I happens to write one of them badly I just happens to misinterpret their characteristic, not because I want to bash them in mean spirit.

* * *

He loves Digimon; he loves the card game to the point of creating and drawing his own Digimon. He remembers the rumours that actual Digimons came to this world during the Odaiba Incident. He also remembers the rumours about a group of children traveling with good Digimons as their partners to stop the bad ones. He uses to dream the Digimon he creates would come to life, and they'll have adventures together just like the fabled group from Odaiba.

That's before the event known as Nemesis Crisis, when millions of Digimons come to this world and destroyed it… His family is lucky: no one's hurt in that tragic event.

But not every one of his friends are as lucky. Some of them lost their lives; some of them lost their loved ones.

Why do things turn out this way… it isn't supposed to happen. He imagines if Digimon comes to our world, both human and Digimons can live peacefully with one another…

Where does everything turn out wrong…?

"Takatomon, Takatomon? Guilmon to Takatomon?" Guilmon's curious voice drags Takato's mind back to reality. Guilmon is the Digimon he draws on a notebook, and he's also one of the reason why he turns into what people would call a 'shut-in' before Nemesis Crisis.

If DDD finds out you have a Digimon friend, you either joins DDD as a field agent or have your Digimon friend taken away. Takato doesn't want Guilmon to fight and get hurt, or has him taken away so the only option left is to hide him in his home.

"I'm here, boy." Takato wraps his right arm around Guilmon's shoulder and feels the warmth from his Digimon partner. Monsters… most residents from Shinjuku safe zone call Digimons monster. How can something that's so warm to embrace truly be monsters?

"He he… fuzzy by huggy time, Takatomon." Guilmon giggles as he gently presses his nozzle on Takato's face while hugs Takato back with his arm.

Little distance ahead of Takato and Guilmon, Juri is walking besides their temporary team leader Daisuke. Her partner Leomon is pulling a sledge shaped cart Daisuke conjures up using one of those program Master Class uses. On the cart, a still unconscious Masaru Damon is lying face up with his Digimon partner Agumon sitting besides his shoulder. Agumon wants to pull his aniki, but Leomon volunteers to do the horse work on the ground a Champion level has more stamina than a Rookie level.

Not to mention… Agumon is simply too small to pull a cart efficiently.

"…so, how did you put our drill sergeant on the floor with one punch like that? Since you know, he's… rumoured to be as strong as a Digimon." Unlike Takato, she's enthusiastic to become a defender, and she's currently asking him all sorts of different questions. Right now, she's interested to know how he defeats the short tempered and inhumanly strong Patroller Class in their earlier fist fight.

"I back stepped, a simple move when your opponent is much stronger, but too angry to be patient."

"Your back... what?" Juri curiously tilt her head to the side, obviously didn't understand what the goggle headed Master Class means.

"It's a technique in T'ai Chi Ch'uan. You take a step back, line up your leg and arm straight and form an angle from the ground like a stick out of the ground and Bam! You let your opponent impale himself on your arm using all his own strength. I learned this from Li family." The Master Class stops walking, and demonstrate the stance he just describes to Juri.

"That sounds like a very useful technique. Can you teach us?" Juri asks with increased enthusiasm in her voice, Takato could almost see little stars glistering in her eyes and this makes him slumps his shoulder down.

Their temporary team leader – he remembers the Master Class introduces himself as Daisuke Motomiya – is confident, strong, and charismatic not to mention he's a Master Class, the highest rank a Defender can achieve. There's every reason he's a girl's prince charming.

And knowing all those makes Takato feeling even more depressed than his usual self.

"What's wrong Takatomon? You look so upset." Noticing his human partner's change, Guilmon asks with concern in his innocent voice. While Digimons are intelligent species, their mind is still comparatively simple compare to human. A teenage boy's crush on a certain teenage girl is simply too complex for Guilmon to grasp fully.

"I'm ok boy. I'm ok…" Takato pets Guilmon on the back before separating himself from his best friend.

"Ah… ok. Do you want bread Takatomon? Bread always makes Guilmon happy when Guilmon feels down!" Guilmon asks as he fishes out freshly backed cinnamon bread from backpack. They don't need to worry about food supply due to the fact they are traveling with a Master Class. Still, Takato's dad packed the latest patch of fresh bread into his son's backpack to make sure everyone can have a hearty breakfast.

Although with Guilmon's presence… that may not be enough.

"No I don't need bread Guilmon, you can have mine." Takato smiles as he pet Guilmon's head. Fresh bread is an important part of Guilmon's life. The fact he thinks about Takato first when it comes down to bread is uplifting enough for the newest Rookie Class defender.

"Yeah! More for Guilmon!" Guilmon happily throws the bread into his mouth while mumbles something in the line of delicious or yummy.

"Ah~, look at you two happily chatting like two brothers, warms my heart. If only my prince is as forth coming..." Juri says with a warm smile on her face and a faked envious tone in her voice as she puts her right hand on Leomon's muscular arm. Leomon doesn't say anything but Takato can see a shade of pink forms on his cheek.

"It's always nice to see a defender who cares about his Digimon. The mend and defend part should at least extend to our partners…" Daisuke also has a smile on his face as his comment on Takato and Guilmon's relationship. Although Takato can't help but notices Daisuke seems to have a distracted look on his face toward the end of his line.

"Gr… wh… What happened?" Their little conversation is interrupted by a groan. The three defenders look at the little cart Leomon is pulling and sees Masaru wakes up. Takato turns to look Daisuke again and sees both his eyes and mouth are wide open like he just sees a hamster turns into an angel.

"Aniki! You are awake!" Agumon shouts happily and looks like he's about to hop onto Masaru's face. But he stops before he makes the leap, and instead looking at Masaru with a worried face.

"Of course I'm awake! You take me for some wimp who can't even take a punch?" Masaru grunts as he tries to sit up from the cart. But he falls down on his back, and moves his hand over his chest. His face distorts a little from the pain he's feeling.

"I wouldn't try to move if I were you. There's a good chance you broke a rib or two when you impaled yourself on my back step technique with all your force. But seriously… what do you eat to get so freakishly strong? You almost broke my arm." Daisuke quickly regains his composure and starts to scold Masaru a little.

"I'm the son of a Digimon… what do you expect you scrawny goggle head? Lots of hard training! If you put more effort into train your body you can fight me like a man instead of fighting me like a coward."

Takato unconsciously shudders at Masaru's remark as he places his left head on his own goggle.

Daisuke let out an exasperated sigh. "Are we on this topic again? Look, you are stronger than me, probably five times stronger than me and if I goes against you head to head I'll lose very quickly but that's not important. There'll be one day you run into some raider, or Gamer thugs who are even tougher than me and what do you expect them to do? Fight you fair and square like – how you would put it – A man?"

"Then I'll just train my self to be stronger, and beat all their dirty trick like a _Man_." Masaru retorts with an unwaving devotion in his tone.

"And I'll be there to help Aniki beat down any bad guys across his path!" Agumon agrees with the same devotion as Masaru.

Daisuke simply slap his right palm on his face with a defeated look while shaking his head disapprovingly. Takato swears he hears Daisuke mumbles something under his breath, something like: That's why Ultraman works alone.

"Shouldn't we…" Takato's voice make all three defenders turns toward him. He swallows hard at this sudden attention he gets from all three teenagers his age.

"What I wanted to say is… since Daimon san is hurt badly; shouldn't we wait till he's better?"

"Wanted to, can not. Yamaki was screaming murder at me. I know you haven't been in DDD for too long, but trust me when I tell you this. Going on a mission with two broken ribs is much healthier than facing our director." Daisuke slumps his shoulder while let out a sign. Apparently the mend and defend human life part didn't extend to the DDD field operatives.

"It's not too bad though, I used a healing live program on Daimon so his injure would heal faster. Plus we should be able to get to another safe zone by tonight. We can take some time to refresh and wait for Daimon to get healed at that safe zone. If Yamaki isn't standing in front of us… he can't do much other than yelling at us can him?" Daisuke raises his head with a somewhat impish grin on his face. While Takato doesn't know Masaru at all, he's glad the short tempered Patroller Class can have some much needed rest and get better.

"Anyways…We were talking about things all defender need to learn. Miss Juri here is interested in some combat training, but we have plenty of time for that after we get back to Ruin Tokyo, or one of the other safe zones. I'll teach you guys something all defenders need to learn first: How to use what we call 'defender's highway'."

"Oh, neat! Is this similar to the 'Escape Window' I heard so much about?" Once again, Juri asks with enthusiasm in her voice. Out of the two Rookie Classes she is the one who's always fascinated by DDD. Takato still remembers how she talks about the defenders in their blue jumpsuit every time she comes to visit him. Unfortunately Takato doesn't share her enthusiasm.

Takato has always been uneasy about DDD due to their Digimon control policy. In a way, he knows it's kind of selfish since DDD is the reason he has a relatively normal life for six years but he can't stand the thought of DDD takes Guilmon away.

"Not exactly… It's not as fancy as a teleportation portal to let you go to America. But it's more down to earth stuff like defenders' highway all of us field agent benefit from." Daisuke's grin grows even wider, and Takato couldn't help but think he looks a little… goofy for a highly esteemed top class defender. Still, he supposes it does radiant a boyish charm contrast to the grim world he lives in.

At least Daisuke is cheerful, and it beats being a wet blanket like he's being…

"See that? That's defender's highway." Daisuke points his finger at the rooftop and runs it through all the ruined buildings toward their horizon.

"Most Digimons tend to travel on the ground since they are much bigger and heavier than human, and those cracked buildings can't support their weight. So for defenders like us who wants to travel to places fast, we master the art of running and jumping over all those buildings. It's not too hard once you get use to it, since all our uniform enhances our strength."

"Great, so I can just jump on the roof top?" Juri asks curiously as she bends her knees down a little and jumps up trying to grab to the top of a three floors building. She does seem to jump a bit higher than she normally can, and Takato suspect she can make a slam dunk if there's a basket in front of her. But still, she's nowhere near the height of a three floor building.

"It's not working." Juri turns back toward Daisuke, having a slightly disappointed look on her face.

"You learn to use the suit better with more practice. Still, it can't make you turn into a super human. But there is a handy gadget build into it…" Daisuke shakes his head with the same grin on his face. He lines his right arm with his eyes and aims it at the edge of the building and press a button on the wrist. With a pop sound, a grappling hook shoots out of his suit and attach to the building. Daisuke the button again, and he zips to the top of the building and climbs on the roof gracefully.

"It's usually a good idea to get use to defender's highway as soon as possible. It's a decent get away if you are being chased by a Digimon at the very least." Daisuke says to the two Rookie Classes on the ground. "Give it a try… Takato is it? Don't worry; I'll be here to help you."

Takato opens up his mouth as if he's trying to say something. He is not exactly the most athletic kid back in the day. Even worse, after the Nemesis Crisis he turns into what people used to call a shut in and that can't be good with his athletic either. What if he makes a mistake and hurt himself?

"Hey, Goggles! Scrawny coward there is calling you! What are you? A chicken?" Masaru yells at Takato with an impatient tone while shaking his fist at the timid Rookie Class.

"Please calm down Aniki, you'll make your wound worse like this." Agumon holds both of his claws onto Masaru's arm trying to stop him from over exerting himself.

Takato feels his face burn up a little. The truth is he has been isolating himself from the world he's living in for so long. He already pushes himself so much out his comfort zone when he joins DDD with Juri. He doesn't know if he can do this with everyone pressuring him…

"Don't bully Takato you muscle head!" Juri walks besides Masaru, and shakes her index finger disapprovingly at him.

"Juri…" Takato mutters Juri's name as she walks beside him. His voice sounds dry. He wants to apologize to the girls he knows for almost all his life for being a coward but she gently put her hand on his mouth.

"It's ok Takato. I'll go first and you follow me. You know what they say: Lady first." She winks at Takato with a mischievous smile as she lines her right arm with her sight and point toward the same rooftop Daisuke is on. She fires her grappling hook, and zips on top of the rooftop with Daisuke giving her a hand.

"See? Not too hard is it Takato? You can do it! I believe in you!" Juri extend both of her arms toward Takato as if she's inviting the goggle headed boy to come toward her.

Once again Takato swallows hard and then takes a deep breath. He has to do it for Juri. He holds his arm up and aims for the same rooftop and then press the button with his left hand.

And nothing happens…

"Damn… Jianliang has really let himself go. Did he let a broken suit pass inspection?" Daisuke blinks dumbfounded and then letting out a sigh.

"I… I can fix it!" Takato on the other hand starts to panic. He starts to rapidly press the button trying to make the grappling hook come out.

"No! Don't press it so f…" Daisuke is saying something, but Takato doesn't catch the second half of his sentence. All he notices is the world suddenly seems to move and twist very fast around him.

The next thing he notices is his feet are no longer on the ground, and all the ruined buildings seem to be a good distance below him. And then it hits him.

He's flying across the air.

Actually, he's currently falling with style.

Scratch that too. He's falling with no style whatsoever as he screams and randomly thrashes his arm in every direction trying to grab onto something so he doesn't fall flat on the pavement.

If Takato is still in command of his faculties, he would know he can't save himself from certain death even if he does manage to grab onto something. Best case scenario: the force from the sudden stop is so great every joint from his finger to his shoulder dislocates and he goes flat on the pavement when he inevitably let go. Worst case scenario: the force from the sudden stop is so great his arm gets torn off and he goes flat on the pavement with one arm missing.

But he's in a state of complete panic so he keeps thrashing about even as a blue biped dragon with a pair of wings on his back grabs him.

"Wow! Easy there big guy! You don't want me to accidently drop you!" Takato turns his head back and manages to catch a glimpse at the dragon Digimon who saves his life. "Nice to meet you here, I'm ExVeemon."

"Nice to meet you…" Takato replies with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He turns towards the ground, and sees both Guilmon and Juri waving at him.

"Alright ExVeemon, you got him. Now slowly brings Takato down…" Daisuke puts a palm beside his mouth as he shouts to ExVeemon.

"I can do that. But where's the fun in that?" ExVeemon said with a mischievous smile on his face as he starts to fly in an eight shaped path at high speed. Takato let out a gasp as the dragon Digimon takes him alone for the ride.

"Better get use to it big guy. Can't call yourself a true defender until you takes to the sky with a Digimon." The winged dragon Digimon let out a hearty laugh as he zips through the buildings at his top speed together with Takato.

"Alright, if that's what you want to do… do a barrel roll!" Daisuke shakes his head as a grin forms on his face again.

"You got it!" ExVeemon nods as he flies toward a desolated apartment building. Just before colliding with the building, he spins around to the side make the whole world dance around Takato.

"This is fun isn't it? One day you'll fly with your own partner like this. I know my kind destroyed your home, but we'll also become your wings if you just let us." ExVeemon says with a warm smile on his face as he turns upward and start to soar towards the cloud in the sky.

Takato feels a little sick with the high speed flying he can't control, he can't help but let out a hearty laugh together with the blue dragon.

For the first time in six years, he notices how blue the sky is.

===DDD log – Live Program===

Many types of equipment utilized by DDD Field Operative are what referred to as 'Live Program'. While most Live Program take mundane appearance such as a playing card, a jumpsuit, a cloak, a screwdriver or a pair of pliers, those tools has more similarity to Digimon than what they appears to be.

Live Program generally has two state, a dormant state where it is usually carried by a field and a second activated state where it helps the user perform feats that would be impossible for ordinary human. Together with a Field Operative's partner Digimon (or Digimons in the case of a defender Master Class) and combat training they receive, Live Programs allows a Defender to battle against any Digimon or human threats.

===End Log===


	8. GOUing! Going! My soul! III

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon

**Author's Note:** One of my favourite video game franchise is Fire Emblem, even though I honestly suck at it. I mainly play the Fire Emblem games for its story, and if I learn one thing from Fire Emblem it is good character can really elevate a story. A mediocre story can become very enjoyable with good characters in them, and a great story pretty much requires great cast of characters.

I'm not sure if I write good characters or not, but it's definitely something I works hard to accomplish when I make a story.

* * *

Before the Nemesis Crisis she's not as interested in Digimon as her other friends. She finds those Digimon playing cards interesting. But she is not what one calls a Digimon groupie like Takato and his friends.

Than again, after Nemesis Crisis she's not as hateful towards Digimon as all the adults either even though she has every reason to be.

Sometimes she wonders why she still trusts Digimon enough to join DDD and have one as her partner. Maybe Takato's love for Digimon rubs off on her more than she realizes. Maybe Guilmon's innocent nature makes her realize not all Digimon are mindless beast live to kill like some of the adult believes.

In any case, as soon as she sees the lion man slumps in the corner of DDD's confinement cell she knows Leomon is destined to be her partner.

She will take her first step forward with him and become strong. She is determined to not be weak ever again.

She owns it to her mother.

* * *

After Takato's unwanted flight through Shinjuku airspace the small group continue on their journey to the late afternoon. Takato is still apologizing to Daisuke for causing that little incident while Juri quickly strikes up a friendship with Daisuke's energetic Digimon partner.

"…and wham, Daisuke is soaked by cold water with a metal bucket on his head." Veemon jumps up as he recounts the exciting tale of how he and Daisuke first become partners.

"It's so hard to imagine the two of you didn't get alone." Juri curiously tilt her head side ways as she holds her sock puppet up and says with a cartoon like fake voice.

"Not in the beginning, nope..." Veemon leans closer and stares at the dog like puppet, fascinated by how imaginative human can be with something so simple. "I prank the hell out of him."

"But you two are like brothers now, so I guess everything worked out in the end." Juri looks back at Daisuke who's having a conversation with Takato. Who is trying to make the lateral feel better about himself by telling the tale of how he grapples himself right into a wall the first time he tries to use the grappling hook.

_Ouch… that has to hurt. _

"You bechya, I won't trade Daisuke for anyone else." The child like dragon says as he rubs his head with one of his hand.

"I know how you feel. I won't trade my prince for any other Digimon either." Juri clings to Leomon's arm as she loudly proclaims. Her action causes another shade of pink to form on the beast man's face.

"SUGAR~!" Guilmon suddenly yells as he bolts forward and interrupt both conversations. Everyone with the exception to Masaru looks forward and sees a field of white glisters under afternoon sun. Guilmon runs to the field and scoops a handful of white into his mouth, and promptly has a brain freeze as he shudders while letting out a whimper.

"Ah… That's not sweet at all…"

The group couldn't help but let out a chuckle together at how innocent Guilmon is behaving. Takato walks up to his partner's side and gently pets his shoulder.

"It's not sugar boy. It's snow."

"What is this snow Takatomon?" Guilmon tilt his head and asks.

"The thing you just ate, silly." Juri walks to Guilmon too and rubs his head.

"Oh…" Guilmon looks thoughtfully down at thick layer of white, cold snow coving the broken pavement and all the ruined buildings.

"Is it just me, or it's still too early to have this much snow here in Tokyo?" Juri asks as she looks up to the sky. There don't seem to have enough cloud to form such large field of snow even if the temperature is much colder.

Daisuke walks into the snow field and buries his left fist deep into the ground, a loud beeping sound escapes his D3K as a frown forms on the young Master Class' face.

"This snow is not natural: it probably comes from Digital World." He shots his grappling hook to one of tallest building on the side and zips right up. He puts his palm above his eyes and inspects the surrounding area and then goes back down to the ground by sliding down a pipe on the side of the building.

"Snow field as far as I can see, we are dealing with a threat five fissure at very least." Even though Takato and Juri still don't know what threat level means in DDD standard, they both understand it's probably bad news from the serious tone of Daisuke's voice.

"Let's get to the safe zone fast; it's not safe to spend the night out here in the open."

* * *

The small group of defenders and their partner Digimons walk through two rows of black spires before they sees a final row of black spire surrounding a high school. They can see a small group of people wearing the same blue jumpsuit standing in front of the gate looking at their direction. Juri realize the teenage boy with a cap on his head leading the group is Takato and her old friend Hirokazu Shioda.

Juri vaguely recalls him joining DDD, and left the main safe zone with one of the Master Class to create a new safe zone roughly two years ago. From the look of things, he's a pretty important figure in this safe zone.

"It's an honour to have you visit our sanctuary, Brave Master Daisuke Motomiya." Juri raises one of her eye brow at Hirokazu's polite greeting to Daisuke. The jokester certainly seems to come a long way to have such serious behaviour.

It might be that certain air of authority, but Juri swears Hirokazu looks much more respectable than she remembers.

"The honour is all my, Supervisor Shioda. My team would like to seek refuge within this Sanctuary for a couple of days so one of our companions can heal his wound." Daisuke walks up and return Hirokazu's bow.

"It is arranged, one of the Patroller will show you the room." One of the defender Juri doesn't recognize steps forward and lead the group toward the school building. Juri looks back toward Takato, who seems to avoid eye contact with his former friend.

Juri still remembers how Hirokazu and Takato have that… verbal debate when Hirokazu wants Takato to join DDD with him and Kenta. From his reaction Juri guesses Takato still hasn't put that unpleasantness pass yet.

As Takato walks pass the young supervisor of the high school, the teenage boy with cap punches the rookie in the shoulder and then leads him away. Juri hears him whispers to Takato about having a talk with him now.

She quickly tells Daisuke she will come to the room in a few minute before running after the two boys around the corner. She needs to be there to make sure they don't have another big fight again. While Hirokazu is not a naturally mean spirited person, Juri can't be sure how much he changes especially now he's in a position of some power.

She needs to look out for Takato.

"Well, look at who's the shut-in who finally decided to leave his home." Juri skips around the corner as she sees Hirokazu flings Takato onto the snow covered ground.

"What do you want Kazu!" Takato asks with annoyance in his voice.

"You knew what I wanted three years ago when I joined DDD, I wanted a friend to watch my back and you declined." Hirokazu stares intensely at Takato, who turns away from his fierce gaze.

"I don't want Guilmon to fight and gets hurt… He's just a baby."

"No, he's not. He's already been living with you for three years. You only treat him like a baby because you don't want to fight yourself." Hirokazu says with accusation in his voice as he points his finger at Takato's nose.

"I… I don't want to lose Guilmon, is it too much to ask?" Takato stammers a little before letting out a loud and frustrated scream. Hirokazu probably wants to retort, but Juri slaps the back of his head before he can do so.

"Ouch! What's that for Juri?" Hirokazu rubs the back of his head as he looks back to the angry looking teenage girl.

"For being a jerk to Takato, apologize, now!" Juri still has her hand raised as she stares right back at her old friend. For a minute, it looks like Hirokazu is going to strike her back, but then he suddenly breaks into a giggle surprising both Juri and Takato.

"You thought I was actually angry… I was teasing old shut-in here. Sorry about that, Takato." Hirokazu turns back to Takato as he offers his hand and helps the Goggle head back up.

"We- Well! As long as you are not actually being mean to Takato…" Juri let out a sigh as she lowers her hand. It comes as a relief Hirokazu is only teasing Takato. She doesn't endorse this kind of act or think it is particularly funny. At same time Juri also knows she can't stop boys from being boys.

"So you are not angry at me?" Takato asks with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Nah, it's pretty tough not have someone I trust watching my back out there, but I did find some reliable teammate. If I'm angry, do you think I'll help keep your secret about living with a Digimon for you?" Hirokazu gives out a shrug as he turns to Takato once again.

"So, old shut-in, what finally makes you decide to come out of your shell…?" Hirokazu's voice starts to trail off as he starts to look back and forth between Juri and Takato. A sly smile creeps up his face as he put his hand in front of his mouth.

"What's that look suppose to mean?" Juri asks with an annoyed frown on her face.

"I would tell you, but I think Takato has something to say to you first, don't you, Old shut-in?" Hirokazu elbows Takato in the chest and then throws his arm around Takato's shoulder; the lateral lets out a nervous laugh.

"Fine, be that way. Looks like I didn't need to worry about Takato after all. I'm leaving!" Hirokazu's behaviour annoys Juri a bit, since she feels like they are shutting her out of a boy's only club once again. She lets out a pout as she turns around and starts to walk away. Takato seems to want to chase after her, but Hirokazu once again holds him by the shoulder and stops him from leaving.

* * *

Juri walks in the hall of the old high school, which is renovated into a living facility for all the settlers of this safe zone. She looks out of the window, and see people busy cultivating a corn like crops out in the field. From the abundance of crops still in the field, it's obvious the snow storm which covers the whole area comes off as a complete surprise. She can't blame anybody; it's not like pre-crisis weather forecast is that accurate anyways.

And judging by her team leader, this is anything but a normal snow storm.

She opens the door to the guest room one of the DDD points her to, and finds a room with a curtain in the middle. On one side there are three mattresses with Masaru and Daisuke occupying one each and the last one empty, and on the other side of the curtain is a single mattress.

She rolls her eyes as she realizes the single mattress on the other side of the curtain is probably meant for her.

Yeah… she's still annoyed at Hirokazu's earlier behaviour. Apparently for the boys in DDD, being maimed or incinerated by a feral Digimon is practically nothing compare to getting cooties from girls…

Juri quickly realize none of their Digimon partners are within the building.

"Where are Leomon, Guilmon, Veemon and Agumon?" Juri's voice makes both Daisuke and Masaru look at Juri with a dumbfounded look on their faces.

"Outside." Masaru points his thumb outward toward the field and then puts his arms back under his head again to serve as pillow.

"Right, I forgot you just joined DDD." Daisuke lets out a tired sigh as he stops fidgeting with his D3K.

"Most people here in Safe Zone don't trust Digimon, so they are usually kept outside. Heck, some of the DDD members like us probably only use them as tools." Juri's eyes grow wide as she hears Daisuke comment with clear disgust in his tone.

"That's terrible! Why won't they trust our Digimon partners, who risk their own lives defend us!" Juri exclaims with horror and shock in her voice.

"Well… there's Nemesis Crisis of course." Daisuke lets out another loud and long sigh.

"Plus, Ken once told me human are paranoid by nature. We don't like to trust things we don't understand, especially they are potentially dangerous. Still, it's hard to blame them, most lost loved ones or close friends six years ago." Daisuke looks at Juri in the eyes, before quietly let out a 'sorry'.

"What did you apologize for?"

"I probably brought some bad memory on your part because… well… There's that." Juri quickly raises her hand to her eyes as she realizes her eyes have become moist.

"Juri, I'm…!" Takato quickly skit to a stop right outside the door, he has an anxious look on his face but then it turns into a look of concern as he looks at Juri. "Are you crying?"

"It's ok Takato, some dust got into my eyes." Juri wipes away her tears and smiles at Takato. "Did you finish catching up with Kazu?"

"Yeah, we'll do some more catch up over a few card games…" Takato nods his head as he stares at Juri, not fully believe her excuse. He opens his mouth once again like he's trying to say something but decided against it.

"Well, I'll leave you two love birds to it then." Daisuke says with a smirk on his face as he lowers his head and start to play around with his D3K's touch screen.

"Wh- What! We are not love birds!" Juri let out a scream as her face turns red, not realize Takato slumps his shoulders at her response.

"Sure… sure." Daisuke simply nods alone, obviously not paying any attention to Juri's denial. A frown suddenly appears on his face as he stands up from his mattress.

"Is there something wrong?"

"It's nothing; I'll be back in a short while." Daisuke walks out of the door on the other side of the classroom before look back at Takato and Juri. "It's getting late, don't leave the safe zone."

And he runs towards the gate of the school building afterwards. Juri turns towards the window and realize the sun is setting.

"What was that about?"

"He's probably low on Bits." Masaru let out a snort from his mattress.

"Low on what?"

"The Bits, you know. That little techno bubble thing all them Master Class need to work their tricks." Masaru says while rolls his eyes. "A Master Class doesn't worth shit without them. So he's gonna need to get some."

"Really… Let's follow him Takato." Juri looks thoughtful for a second before she turns toward Takato.

"But didn't Daisuke tell us to wait here?" Takato has a hesitant look on his face as he tries to look away.

"Come on, don't you want to see our team leader in action? Besides, we have our Digimon partners to protect us so what could go wrong?" Juri says with enthusiasm as she drugs Takato away, none of them see a smirk on Masaru's face.

* * *

A group of huge snowman like Digimon wanders alone the snow covered pavement. They suddenly stops as they look to the other direction of the intersection and see three figures approach them.

"I'm sorry…" A shadow is cast over Daisuke making his face look like a yin-yang symbol. He let out a low pitched apology to his two companions, giving a menacing aura to the normal cheerful and goofy Master Class.

"Don't worry partner…" ExVeemon says as he walks alongside his human partner.

"…We understand." Veedramon cracks his knuckles.

The three of charges at the group of bewildered Digimon in complete silent.

===DDD Log - Equipment===

Skeleton Suit

Skeleton Suit is the live program issued to all DDD field operative. It comes in the form of a blue jumpsuit which enhances the wearer's strength, shock absorption, and resistance for both physical and energy base attack. In addition, the suit comes with a grappling hook in the right wrist which allows a skilled DDD field operative to easily travel in the ruin of metropolitan area.

===End Log===


	9. GOUing! Going! My soul! IV

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon

**Author's note:** One thing I find somewhat challenging about writing an elseworld/alternate universe fanfic is the amount of background/character building in the start of the story. I don't want to jump right into the main plot, because I want to take the much needed time to explore the changes most cannon characters have within my story's continuity.

I'm about 9 chapters and 20k words into story and we finally get into the first big battle event of this fanfic. Although the main course of the battle is still in the next chapter, so for the few people who's been supporting my story so far (My most sincere gratitude to all of you) please be patient for one more week till the main cast (I can' really call them Team Brave yet, since they haven't officially formed Team Brave) face their first threat.

* * *

A V shaped and an X shaped energy beam cuts into the group of snowman Frigimon like hot knives through butter, deleting half a dozen outright. Six strands of white data flows into Daisuke's wrist mounting D3K. The rest of them realize they are under attack and start to throw a barrage of never ending snowballs at the attackers.

ExVeemon goes air born right away to avoid the incoming hailstorm of snowballs. Veedramon on the other hand breaks into a sprint and brace himself head on against the attack.

"Too weak, too weak, too weak… TOO WEAK!" Veedramon chants with a ferocious frenzy as he breaks through Frigimon's attack with his brutal strength. Out of Daisuke's two dragon partners, the muscle bound Veedramon is always the more competitive and aggressive one. Daisuke couldn't help but sees some similarity between him and Masaru. He is just glad the wingless dragon is not as stubborn as the human Digimon even if he's more of a show off.

"Kickass!" Veedramon let out a victorious cry as he charges into one of the Frigimon, crushing its head with his bare claw. The poor snowman breaks into strand of data absorbed into Daisuke's D3K.

Another Frigimon tries to punch Veedramon on the head with its Subzero Ice Punch attack. White smoke like mist clouds the bear like snowman Digimon's fist. But before the punch connects, a boomerang cuts through Frigimon's body and he explodes into data. The boomerang is aimed right at Frigimon's core and shutters it completely just like the goggle headed Master Class predicts.

ExVeemon on the other hand lands on the back side of the group of Frigimon as they are busy defending themselves from Veedramon and Daisuke. He grabs one of the snowmen with both of his clawed hand and with a loud grunt snaps the snowman in half and breaks him into strand of data.

Between the two strong dragons and a seasoned Master Class Defender, the number of Frigimon dwindles very quickly. Veedramon let out another vicious roar as he digs both of his claws into the last Frigimon's chest and then extend both his arm outward and rips the snowman Digimon apart.

The group of Frigimon is no more. All there is left are Daisuke, Veedramon and ExVeemon standing in the snow field. The three of them are breathing heavily, not from exhaustion but more from the adrenaline rush. Daisuke looks down at his D3K and sees how much Bits he just manages to collect from the one-sided massacre.

"This should last us over this mission…" Daisuke says as he suddenly hears something behind him. He quickly raises his boomerang and twist around to see the two newest recruits of DDD: Takato and Juri staring at him with their Digimon partners.

"Oh, shit…" Daisuke mutters under his breath as he clearly sees the fear in both Rookie Class Defenders' eyes. He doesn't need to see a live replay of what he just did to know how savage he must look during the fight.

Takato turns around and runs away with his Digimon partner yelling and following after him. Both Juri and Daisuke gives chase right after, not seeing a small boy and an owl like Digimon staring at them from the shadow of a ruined building. The boy's yellow eyes burns with hatred as he silently inspects the small group disappear around a corner.

* * *

Hirokazu Shioda walks in the hallway of the former high school with his Digimon partner Guardromon. Most people who see him step out of their way with either respect, or a tint of fear in their eyes. Hirokazu Shioda may not be one of the highly esteemed Master Class Defenders, but being Master Makino's right hand man and the second in-command of this safe zone does net him a lot of prestige within the safe zone.

He's taking his last patrol before he turns in for the night. Besides completely crushing other defenders in a friendly Digimon card battle game, Hirokazu also enjoys taking those evening patrols with his partner Digimon. He's never a thinker, but with how much shenanigan happens to a defender, especially a second in-command of a safe zone on a regular basis he does need some time to clear his head.

"Supervisor Shioda, you need to see this!" One of the defenders manning the graveyard shift of the computer lab hastily calls out to him. The former computer lab of a high school is a far cry from DDD's headquarters with its fancy Hypnos system. Still, the radar program is capable of detecting any Digimon above Threat Three in a large enough distance to give the defenders stationed in the safe zone a head up.

"What's wrong?" Hirokazu asks as he steps into the computer lab and takes a look at the screen. A frown creeps up his face as he sees a dot signifying a Threat Five with a cluster of Threat Four is moving across the screen at a fast pace. Even worse, the clusters of Digimons are making a B-line toward their safe zone.

"Oh, shit…" Hirokazu curses under his breath.

* * *

Takato doesn't know where he is running to. Heck, he doesn't even realize which direction is he running until he falls head first into a snow pile. He pulls his head from the freezing snow, let out a shiver and starts to throw up uncontrollably. What he just witnesses Daisuke does makes him feels sick in the stomach.

He never looks up to the DDD with zeal like most of other kids his age and dreams of wearing a defender's signature blue jumpsuit. With Daisuke killing a group of Digimon in cold blood he feels both sick and ashamed to be a part of DDD and Guilmon's friend.

"Takatomon… Are you ok?" Guilmon approaches Takato with his ears slump on the side. He gently touches Takato's shoulder which makes Takato shudders and throws up some more. Guilmon quickly retreat his claw, thinking what he just did makes Takato upset.

"I'm… ok, boy…" Takato tries to comfort Guilmon between his breaths. But how he sounds, not to mention how he looks certainly doesn't make Guilmon think he's ok.

"Takato…" He hears Juri's sound behind his back, but a male voice interrupts what Juri is trying to say.

"I'll get this."

Daisuke walks beside Takato and bend down into a squatting position. He doesn't have his goofy grin on, nor does he look feral when he's killing the Frigimons. For the moment, the Master Class has a complete serious look while he stares at Takato.

"You want to say something right?"

"I should be grateful for DDD… without them I won't be having a normal life. Heck… there's a good chance I won't be alive at all…" Takato stares down at the snow tainted by his bile and stomach acid while states in a murmur like low pitch without any emotion before his voice start to get higher and higher till it resembles the scream of a wounded animal.

"How can we be friends with our Digimon, while killing their kind in such COLD BLOOD AT THE SAME TIME?"

"Well… Digimon's nature is to fight each other to death for one thing…" Takato gives Daisuke a glare as he attempts to light up the mood by throwing a bad joke at the upset Rookie Class. Master Class or no, how can he think taking other lives away is a subject that can be joke about?

"But I guess you aren't in the mood for smart ass remarks. So how about I tell you the story of when I first join DDD instead?"

* * *

Masaru wakes up to the blaring sound of Digimon assault alarm. It sounds like a fire siren, with the addition of an echo which makes the alarm sounds ten times more annoying in his mind. He mutters a curse under his breath as he sits up from the mattress with his right hand still pressed on his own chest.

"All field operatives to battle station, all field operatives to battle station. This is not a drill. I repeat, all field operatives to battle station, this is not a drill…" The voice of the guy who welcomed them to the safe zone has a serious tone to it. Masaru may not be the brightest light bulb in a bunch, but right now even he can tell shit is about to hit the fan.

"Damn, I was having a good dream about finally punching the goofy smile off goggles' face too." Masaru curses under his breath again as he slowly stands up while holding on to the wall with his left hand. He steadies himself, before opening the window to the yard with his right hand.

"Agumon!"

"I'm here aniki!" The yellow lizard runs toward his human partner from around the corner.

"What are we waiting for? That guy did say 'all field operatives' didn't him?" Masaru asks as he jumps into the yard through the window. He presses his right hand on his chest once again as he feels a stinging pain.

"But you are hurt aniki…" Agumon tries to convince Masaru to stop acting foolish out of concern but all he gets is a death glare from Masaru as he raises his fist. Agumon holds his head with both of his claw while ducking down thinking Masaru is about to punch him again. To his surprise the punch never comes.

"Have you forgotten what I taught you before Agumon?" Agumon looks up to Masaru's face and sees his human partner gives him a disapproving look.

"Real man doesn't whine about every little detail. He'll bear any hardship life throws at him head on, and prevail! Now are you ready to prove yourself a real man or not?"

"Of course aniki, I'll follow you to the end of the world!" Agumon nodes his head as the two of them follows the trail of other Defenders from the safe zone to battle.

* * *

_I lost both of my parents during Nemesis Crisis. Heck, my sister Jun and I won't be here if it wasn't for one of the DDD's first Master Class – Although she wasn't a Master Class back then since DDD hasn't even form yet, but that's besides the point – And during the first days after Nemesis Crisis, what eventually became DDD was our only line of defence against the rampaging Digimons. Back then I idolized the Defenders, thinking they were heroes. I mean… what's not to love them, with their fancy uniform, powerful gadgets, and having a digimon partner tag alone side of you to protect your family, friends, and everyone who needs protection like something from Kamen Rider or Super Sentai show._

_So I was one of the first groups of children who joined DDD back in 2002. No one knew why, but the program we use to bind a Digimon to us and using all those fancy gadgets can only be used by children. I didn't mind it, because I got to join this group of heroes and make a difference in the world. I didn't really understand the risk with it, and I didn't think all those questions you just asked me back then. I was only ten after all._

_Over the years, as I grow older and saw more things in the wild land I begin to question all the things both my fellow defenders and I do. We enslave Digimon to do our bidding, and we delete them for their data to transform them into supplies. Was it fair to do those things while force a Digimon to be our partner who has no choice but to follow us?_

_I'm not sure what does that make DDD. But I'm certain about one thing: We are not heroes, I'm not sure if we are even the good guys._

"So you know DDD is not really good guys and what you are doing is not fair to your Digimon friends… why do you still do it?"

"If I leave DDD, Yamaki would take all my Digimon friends away from me is a huge reason, and the only other option left is take my Digimon partners and my sister Jun and run away. But becoming a fugitive is not really a good idea, since I won't be able to keep Jun safe from all the raiders, thugs, and other sick people in the wild land." Daisuke gives a defeated shrug as he let out a sign.

"But even if I can keep myself and my sister safe, I still won't desert DDD. We may not be heroes, but we are making lots of difference for other decent people living in this goddamn world. Decent people like Juri's family and yours. So even if I admit I'm doing lots of bad things, I think the result is still worth it."

"What a cope out… So in the end all you need to justify your action is the result." Takato slams his fist into snow as he mutters with resentment in his tone.

"I can't stop you from thinking like this, because even I don't think my own actions are justified." To Takato's surprise, Daisuke does not try to come up with a retort and instead agrees with him in a sad but sincere voice.

"Then why do you…"

"Like I said, I'm able to make a difference in this world by being a defender. With how much decent people suffers in this world, it would be irresponsible of me to simply burry my head into the dirt and turn a blind eye simply because I don't want to get my hands dirty." Daisuke says with his usual goofy smile as he stands up and start to walk away. Takato couldn't help, but notice a sense of melancholy in the Master Class defender's face even through his expression.

"One last question, if you knew all you knows now from six years ago… will you still join DDD?"

"I will, and even more so now that I learned what the world is truly like." Takato stands up and look at Daisuke's face trying to find any trace of hesitation. He only finds uncompromising determination instead.

Takato wants to say something else to Daisuke, but a loud explosion echoes in the distance. All of them turn their head and to their dismay, they see a black obelisk slowly falls over in the distance.

"The safe zone is under siege!" Daisuke's face turns serious, as he twists his body to face his two dragons. "We need to help them!"

"Let's go then, come on Takato!" Juri agrees as she runs besides Takato and takes his hand.

"No! The two of you go and find shelter! I'll take care of it!" To both of their surprise, Daisuke shouts at them with a stern look on his face.

"But we are both Defenders two!" Juri tries to object with an annoyed frown on her face, but Daisuke is sure of his decision.

"No! None of you have even finished your training yet, it's too dangerous for the two of you to go against something that's at least Threat Five. Let's go guys!" Daisuke shouts to his two dragon companions as he grapples on to Defender's Highway and zips away into the night.

"Right!" "Right behind you Big D!" Both dragons nod their head, as ExVeemon takes flight and Veedramon sprints away towards the safe zone turns into warzone.

* * *

The last collared Airdramon explode into data with a painful screech as a large group of about five dozen snow terrain Digimons rushes through the breach opened by the fallen black obelisk. Amongst all the Digimon, a white devil like figure slowly levitate towards the human safe zone with a confident smirk on his face.

_With this army, I'll finally make you mine… my dear Ruki…_

===DDD Log – Threat Level ===

In addition to the normal evolution level, Dynamic Data Defender also assign a Threat Level to all Digimon in order to better assess their power.

Rough break up of Threat Level VS Evolution Level

Threat level below three = Rookie and below

Threat level three to five = Champion

Threat level five to ten = Ultimate

Threat level above ten = Mega

All field operative need to remember this break up is only a rough estimation of power regarding normal evolution level. For example, it is possible for a Champion level Digimon to be above Threat Level five.

The Digimon with highest Threat Level within DDD's data base is Millenniummon, which is designated Threat Seventeen.

===End Log===


	10. GOUing! Going! My soul! V

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon

**Author's Note:** First of all, I apologize for anyone who's been following this story till this point about this update being late. I was having some difficulties writing this chapter's head to finish battle scene (That's a huge reason why I started my 'Wing of Miracle' story, so I have a different story and help me relax when I gets anxious about writing this story). Personally, I really like a Digimon story when an author makes some cleaver strategy into the fight, instead of the more or less Dragon Ball Z style 'fire your strongest attack and the he who's has highest HP/MP wins'. Unfortunately, I guess I'm just not that great a strategist myself to be cleaver so it more or less come out as a DBZ style fight anyways.

This chapter has a few OC in them, and yes Rin, Kaede and Asa are SHUFFLE! characters and from how I write them I guess someone who's knowledgeable about SHUFFLE! knows my pairing preference in that game. And yes, Asa's Leeroy Jenkins moment is me giving my flaming 'FUCK YOU Middle Finger' to that atrocious SHUFFLE! anime adaptation which completely screwed over my favourite character Kaede and pairs Asa (she's my least favourite character by the way) with Rin. Is it character bashing? I suppose it is... but I don't care because the anime adaptation bashed my favourite character Kaede first so I'M ALLOWED- (Statics...)

(One happy moment later) Cough... Sorry about the outburst, I get a little upset whenever I think about that anime adaptation of SHUFFLE!. Yosuke is actually not from any anime/manga/game (and no, he's not the same Yosuke from Persona 4). He's one of the main character in a story I wrote somewhat based on Sekirei.

Hopefully this chapter can still be enjoyable for anyone who read it.

* * *

Different coloured projectile flies between the two sides of battlefield. The Defenders from safe zone manage to intercept the advancing army of Digimons before they can reach the second perimeter. The defenders manage to hide themselves in cover due to familiarity with the terrain; unfortunately they are still outnumbered against the advancing army.

Hirokazu peeks out of the concrete wall he and Guardromon is hiding behind. He let out a loud curse before quickly retreating back into his cover. A spear of ice dart through the air and would pierce his head if he's a second late.

"There are too many of them. Our force is getting pinned down!" One of his old teammate, a 'go home club' boy who used to go to same school named Yosuke shouts to Hirokazu as he holds up his shield. A ball of snow and icicles splatters on his shield and knocks Yosuke back as his partner Sistermon Noir fires back at incoming horde.

"We can't hide behind cover forever! They'll over run us in less then ten minutes at this rate." Hirokazu makes another quick peek out of the broken wall as his partner Guardromon fires his missiles against their enemy. He hunkers down behind the wall and thinks for a second as he pulls a deck of cards out of his pouch and shuffles through them at random.

"Let's get out and run around them between covers, see if we can divide their attention and split them up!" Hirokazu says as he quickly slides one of the cards into his Patroller Class standard Digiboy 2500. A shield materializes on his left arm just like Yosuke.

"Alright, let's do this!" A slightly older girl with short green hair suddenly jumps up behind the two boys. She rushes out of the ruined building they are hiding in with her Gekomon and charges at the incoming horde of ice land Digimons.

"FUCK!" Hirokazu screams out a loud curse as another boy in the group makes a grab at the girl's arm but fails to catch her.

"ShiGUUUUUUuuuuuuure~! AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaasa~!" The girl makes about twenty meters into the no man's land before another huge ball of ice explode a short distance left of her. The impact sends her and Gekomon glide through the air and hit a wall, knocking them both out cold.

"ARGH! ASA YOU… BAKA! I said run around them between covers, not charging ahead like a paladin high on chicken soup!" Hirokazu pulls his hair in frustration as Guardromon tackles him down on the ground. A large chunk of ice lands in the ruined room and send shards all over.

"What should we do Supervisor? We can't leave Asa Senpai out there!" The boy who tried to grab Asa asks as he dusts off the ice shard on his blue jumpsuit while shielding a light haired girl in the group.

"Get her ass back in here before she's killed and what else?! Yosuke! Rin! We'll run out as a distraction. Kaede! Get on your Kiwimon and grabs Shocking Shigure and her damn frog then run like hell! Don't wait for us!" The two boys nod at Hirokazu's plan with determination in their eyes.

"Monochromon! Cover us!" Rin, the last boy within the group slide a card into his D25 and he looks up to his dinosaur Digimon partner. The Champion level gives his own human partner a nod as he knows he is too large to move quickly in the open field.

Kaede the girl with light coloured hair pulls Rin's hand into her own hands and squeeze it tight. He turns to face Kaede and put his index finger on her lips while shaking his head and let out a chuckle. "You don't need to say anything. Plus I don't want you to give me a death flag."

She nods as she mounts onto the ostrich like Kiwimon and get ready to charge out together with the three boys. "Let's go get Asa Senpai back!"

"On my mark… NOW!" Hirokazu shouts as the three boys charge out under the cover of Monochromon's fire balls. They holding their shield and runs toward the advancing Digimon horde with Guardromon and Sistermon Noir slightly behind them. The small wall created from their shield manages to hold against the projectiles flying against them. Guardromon and Sistermon Noir returns fire with their missile and pistol.

* * *

Daisuke and his two dragons arrive on the edge of the battlefield. He holds a hand up to stop Veedramon from charge right in.

"What are we waiting for Big D?! Let's kickass!" Veedramon shouts as he bumps both of his fists together.

"Just a second." Daisuke inspect the battle as he slide two cards with the writing of 'revitalization' into his D3K. Two strands of data flow out of his wrist mounting computer and envelop both ExVeemon and Veedramon. He notices Icedevimon floats above the small army of snow terrain Digimon, firing a barrage of icicles at the entrenched Defenders when they return fire to the horde.

"So that white demon is the head honcho? Not surprising, fallen angel type is usually smarter." ExVeemon looks at Icedevimon just like his human partner, before he suddenly shrinks down in size back to Veemon. He turns back and returns a smile to Daisuke's grin.

"Let's turn up the heat and melt ice with fire! We need Flamedramon!" Daisuke exclaims as he punch some keys on the D3K's screen. A beam of orange light shoots out of his D3K and hit Veemon. He grows in size again, but turns into a form different from ExVeemon. He's not as tall or muscular as ExVeemon. The slender and athletic looking blue dragon has orange armour decorated with the mark of fire over his face, chest, forearms, knees and feet with claws made of blade on the arm and foot armour.

"Let's take out the leader fast and that should give them something to think about!"

"Haven't been in this form for a while. I'll go first muscle head; catch up to me if you can!" The orange armoured dragon man looks at his clawed hand with a reminiscent smile on his face. He jumps into the air with a flip and start to dart towards the horde over all the ruined buildings.

"Finally! More kickass!" Veedramon exclaims happily as he follows right after Flamedramon.

"Let's see if you are cold enough to stand…" Flamedramon says with confidence in his tone as he starts to charge up his energy into his right claw. A ball of red flame starts to spin within the center of the three blades. The ball of flame start to increase in size as it turns into the colour of orange, yellow, and finally white before Flamedramon throw the ball of explosive energy toward Icedevimon. "…MY FLAME FIST!"

Perhaps it is a highly atoned survival instinct, or maybe experience for all the previous fights in Digital World. Icedevimon suddenly turns around as if he senses the attack behind his back. The eyes on the fallen angel's cruel face narrows as he extend out his right hand out and blocks the ball of fire. It hums for a second before explode into a brilliant flash of solar flare temporarily blind Icedevimon.

"Why you little…" The fallen angel screams as he instinctively shields his eyes with his left hand. Before he can do anything a V shaped energy arrow slams into his body and with a loud boom knocks him out of the sky.

"Did we get him?" Flamedramon lands in front of Veedramon in a crouching position. He stands up and charges another attack and gets ready to throw another attack out of his claw. Before he finishes charging up an enraged roar echoes around the ruined street. Icedevimon charges out of his horde of minions and charges straight at the two dragons. "Damn!"

Flamedramon quickly throws his fireball towards Icedevimon before jumping out way. Veedramon on the other hands runs forward, clutching his right fist as tight as possible and get ready to throw the hardest punch he can throw.

"You miserable little lizard!" Icedevimon howls as his slap away Flamedramon's fire ball away like a fly. His claw crashes into Veedramon's fist. A shock wave emits from the clash between the two powerhouses and blows snow into air around them. They seem evenly matched for a few seconds, before Icedevimon starts to push Veedramon back.

Veedramon's eyes start to twitch and his body starts to shiver as ice starts to cover his fist and arm. A brilliant white strand of data recoils his body before he is completely overpowered. He suddenly opens his eyes wide as if he gains a new found power. Ice shatters around his bulging muscles as he suddenly grabs Icedevimon's claw with his left hand. Before Icedevimon can do anything else, Veedramon spins around in place and drags and flings him round and round like a ragdoll.

"Hey, Skinny!" Veedramon shouts as he throws Icedevimon high into air. "Popsicle's all yours!"

"Time for a good old FIRE ROCKET!" Flamedramon exclaims as his body ignites into flame and he jumps at Icedevimon with the speed and power of a giant bolt shooting out of a ballista. Icedevimon howls with pain as Flamedramon crashes into his chest and sends him higher into sky.

"That still didn't do him in?" Flamedramon lands on the snow covered pavement and look up at Icedevimon high in the sky. White smoke of water vapour seems to escape his bruised chest but the fallen angel of ice seems more pissed than seriously hurt. "Persistent, if nothing else."

"Hit the deck!" Daisuke's voice alert his two dragons as they leap out of way before a hailstorm of snow balls and icicles comes their way from Icedevimon's minions.

They hope to take down Icedevimon before his minions catch up to what happens. But now that they find Icedevimon is stronger than they thought they are caught in between Icedevimon and his minions.

* * *

"Split up!" Hirokazu silently count to sixty before he shouts at the top of his lung. It is not a moment too soon, as the shield he is using shatters into fragment of data with the impact of an icicle spear.

Hirokazu rolls to the left behind a pile of rubble with Guardromon as Yosuke and Rin dodges to the right with Sistermon. He turns back and sees Kiwimon disappear behind a wall while carrying Gekomon in his peak. Kaede on top of him, dragging the unconscious body of Asa by her arm.

_Well… at least those two are out of danger… Someone better reminds me to give Asa a good smacking on her head after we get back. If we get back…_

Hirokazu let out a deep breath as he ponders on how to get himself, Yosuke and Rin out of their little situation as Icedevimon's horde pond on their cover with their projectile attacks. Before the safe zone supervisor could formulate a plan, he sees something in the corner of his eyes.

An extremely angry looking defender is charging at the horde like Asa with an Agumon. Snowballs and Icicles explode around the blue clad Patroller class and yellow lizard but they are unfazed by all the danger as they simply push through. Hirokazu is about to yell at the foolhardy defender to get into cover before something he previously think impossible happens right in front of his eyes.

A snowball the size of a small car hurls at the defender but he doesn't try to dodge the attack. His eyes seems to be burning with fierce aggression as he brings his right arm back, and then throw a hard punch into the snowball. It shatters into million pieces of snowflakes and dissipate around him.

"No way he's human…" Hirokazu says with a dumbfounded expression in his face as the patroller class charges his orange fire like soul into his D25. The yellow lizard shivers, and then grows into a gigantic T-Rex like creature with blue strips on his body and a black boney helmet on its head with an Earth shattering roar.

* * *

"Watch out muscle brain!" Flamedramon dodges a barrage of icicles rain down to himself as he shout to Veedramon with concern in his voice. The wingless dragon is much slower and much bigger than himself.

Veedramon let out a grunt as he crosses his arms on top of his head and brace himself to take Icedevimon's attack in full. The icicles shatter on his thick muscles but still manage to knock the dragon down to his knees.

Icedevimon dives down towards injured Veedramon. Flamedramon charges at him burning with fire like before but Icedevimon grabs his face. The fire around Flamedramon fades away as he slowly becomes encased in ice and gets throw down into Veedramon by Icedevimon.

"Do you see it my dear Ruki!" Icedevimon exclaims loudly as he slashes and knocks the two dragons around.

"You and I… we belong together! We are both made of ice! We are both strong! And the strong…" He suddenly leaves the two dragons and darts toward Daisuke at blinding speed in the distance. Daisuke quickly slide a card into his D3K and an orange coloured shield with the symbol that looks like the sun materializes on his hand.

A loud clank sound echoes around the street as Daisuke gets knocked back into a wall. Before he can get his bearing he feels a tight grip around his neck as he gets pick up by his neck. "…has the right to do anything to the weak! Do you want me to kill one of your fellows to prove my strength?!"

"Hey, ugly!" Icedevimon turns back towards the sound only see a rapidly enlarging fist coming at his face. With a loud crunch sound the fallen angel of ice releases Daisuke he crashes into a building.

"Nobody kills my rival on my watch!" Masaru hits the ground on one of his knees and pants a heavy breath and both fist into the ice to support him. He looks a little out of breath, possibly from all the fast running and punching his way through. In the back, his partner Geogreymon wracks havoc to Icedevimon's army like a rampaging Godzilla.

"Masaru! Your injuries still haven't healed! Why didn't you stay back?!" Daisuke catches his breath as he quickly runs to Masaru's side and helps him up.

"I can't have my rival lose to anyone other than myself can I?! Besides, I'm not going to let you have all the fun and glory." Masaru spits on the ground and hold up his fist as he stands up. A roof flies into the distance as Icedevimon tears out of the ruined building. "Let's show this Kaiju wannabe reject what man we are truly made of!"

"I second that." Daisuke slides another card into his D3K after he bumps his fist with Masaru. The cloak behind him flashes into the colour of data strand as it slowly changes form.

===DDD – Log===

Equipment – Digiboy Model 2500

Commonly referred to as D25, Digiboy Model 2500 is the handheld Digimon controlling interface for Patroller Class Defender Field Operative.

In addition to apply Bit Card to a Defender's partner Digimon like Model 2000, D25 has the ability to let a Patroller apply his or her own Digisoul to evolve to let Digimon evolve into higher form. A soul evolved Digimon is typically stronger than Bit Card evolved form and does not suffer the same draw back of a Bit Card modification.

===End Log===


	11. GOUing! Going! My soul! VI

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon

**Author's Note: **For the awesome people who are following this story, sorry I didn't update sooner. I had the idea of this chapter down, but for some reason I just have a hard time writing it out. I'm guessing I had one of the off week, or if I'm feeling a bit burn out which doesn't make sense since I don't work that hard... but depression can strike when you least expect it I guess.

I'm not sure this story is simply too silly for most people with all the Defenders running around using their cartoony gadget that'll make Batman rise his eyebrow since I don't get much feedback on their presence in the story. But the Spiral Conversion and Live Program does serve a story telling purpose instead of simply being here to make it look cool (ok, that's also a reason). But yeah, the battle with Icedevimon continues and I hope all of you can enjoy this chapter.

* * *

Takato is being dragged by Juri as she runs along the broken pavement. His head still feels a bit numb. After all, he just witnesses one of the supposed 'greatest' heroes in DDD massacring a group of innocent Digimon in complete cold blood. To make matters worse, after a little conversation with said person he realize he needs to also do this for a living if he still wants to keep Guilmon as his friend.

Well… he can run away like Daisuke suggests. But leaving his family, what few friends he still has left behind and scavenge for a living doesn't sounds too appealing.

He mentally kicks himself for what a fine mess he manages to get himself into.

"Wow… no way." Juri's voice brings Takato back into reality. He takes peek in the horizon and immediately shares Juri's sentiment. Daisuke and Masaru are laying the smack down on a white humanoid Digimon with tattered wings and long arm. Being a Digimon groupie, Takato recognize their opponent is an Icedevimon.

Fallen angel type is usually very strong, but right now two human is beating the stuff out of him like two senior school bullies beating the lunch money out of a freshman. Their team leader Daisuke is in what look like a blue coloured metal plate armour like something from a Sci-fi genre video with a pair of gigantic gauntlet on his forearms. As for Masaru… he's just pummelling Icedevimon like a rag doll with nothing but his bare fist.

Daisuke throws a hook with his right fist and nails Icedevimon on his face. The fallen angel of ice gets knocked straight into Masaru's coming fist from his right. He staggers a little, and gets a double uppercut on his jaw from both Daisuke and Masaru. Icedevimon flies a good ten meters into the sky before diving into the snow field head first.

Takato can't help but feels sympathetic toward the Digimon. On the other hand, he is glad the situation seems to be completely under control.

Takato feels relived when Icedevimon takes to the sky, thinking the wild Digimon learns his lessen and decided to run away to avoid further bloodshed. But to his surprise and confusion, instead of flying further away from the safe zone he flies over the battle field where his minions are fighting with the Digimons of Defenders.

"What is he doing Juri? Do you think he's trying to take his friends away?" Takato looks at Juri, trying to see if his good friends have a better understanding of the situation than he does.

"I don't know… this fight looks so much different from all those card games and…" Juri replies in the same confusion as Takato, before she can give a full answer they both see Icedevimon scoop up a handful of what appears to be humanoid bear shaped ice blocks.

Takato and Juri's confusion turns into sheer horror as Icedevimon crushes the handful of Icemon in his palm and absorbs their data. All the burns and bruises on the fallen angel's body fade away. In addition its already long arms start to grow longer and more massive to the point it looks like a pair of tree trunks hanging out of his body like a pair of gigantic clubs rather than a pair of arms.

Takato doesn't need anyone else to tell him this is not a good sign. Besides him, Guilmon's pupils slide into a line like a reptile predator.

"Takato, this Digimon is dangerous." Guilmon hisses with a low pitched growl unlike his normal happy child like voice. Takato looks at Guilmon with surprise and a little anxiousness in his eyes.

"Did that Icedevimon… just killed his own friends to heal himself?" Juri asks to no one in particular.

"Someone like him has no friends, only servants." Leomon's normal stoic is filled with distain as he inspects the grotesque form Icedevimon takes. "He took the data of all the snow land based Digimon in his own army to heal and power himself up. But even if their data is similar due to being snow land Digimon, the difference and a sudden increase in his data still causes mutation to his core. Take cover little ones, this is getting too dangerous."

Leomon pulls out his sword and takes a fighting stance. Guilmon follows his example and brandish both of his claws.

"Maybe the others can over power him…?" Takato asks to no one in particular. In the distance Geogreymon let out a roar as he releases a stream of flame from his mouth towards Icedevimon. The fallen angel of ice throws one of his arms forward, and the flame stream turns blue and seemingly frozen solid before everyone's eyes. "…Or not?"

* * *

Daisuke fires up his back mounting booster and rush at Icedevimon's blind side with Flamedramon as he is busy dealing with Geogreymon. Before he could land a solid hit with his mecha fist his field of vision turns completely white in a blink of eyes.

"Damn!" Daisuke brings both his fist together in front of his face and chest like a make shift shield. He is send flying away with a loud crack sound and crashes into a building without a chance to steady himself. He tries to stand up but almost face plant into the floor when his arms wouldn't move. The half dazed Master Class looks down to his fists and realize they are encased in ice. "Damn."

Flamedramon has better luck than his human partner as he is knocked directly into Veedramon whose body cushioned his fall. Although like his human partner he is also half covered in ice.

In the distance Geogreymon falls into the snow with a loud thud as his whole head is frozen into an ice block.

"All you Rookies get back…!" Hirokazu shouts at the top of his lung as his partner Guardromon fires missile after missile at Icedevimon to distract Icedevimon from attacking the more inexperienced defenders. The missile seems to have no effect other than shaving off a thin layer of frost off Icedevimon's body.

Hirokazu quickly slide a speed boost into his D25 as Icedevimon brings one of his arms clapping down at Guardromon. The sudden increase in speed allows the robot Digimon to barely side step away from Icedevimon's arm hammer. Behind him, Masaru quickly runs besides his fallen Digimon partner and start to punch the ice with his fist trying to crack it open.

Icedevimon brings both of his arms up and huge chunk of ice start to form around him. He brings his arms down and boulder sized ice start to fly in every direction.

"Hit the deck!" Hirokazu shouts at the top of his lungs as he jumps and rolls to the inside of a half collapsed building. Hirokazu brings both of his arms in front of him to cover his face from the blizzard of broken cement as the wall gives away. He coughs and rolls up to his feet and feels relived to finds himself free from any injure.

_I been in a number of bad situations, but that was too close for comfort…_

The supervisor's train of though is cut short as he hears scream from both Sistermon and Kaede. He runs out of the building and sees both Yosuke and Masaru is half buried in a smaller boulder of ice. No doubt Yosuke tries to protect the more reckless Patroller Class with his shield but gets over powered by the size of that thing.

Kaede is fine since she's still too far away from the battle field. But following her line of sight Hirokazu sees an iceberg sitting in the place where Rin used to be before. Even if Hirokazu doesn't see it with his eyes, he can still guess what happened to his teammate.

"YOU BASTARD!" Hirokazu screams as he slides a Meramon card into his D25. Guardromon's missiles start to explode with fire on Icedevimon's body but don't appear to have better effect. As Icedevimon is busy dealing with Guardromon, Hirokazu runs towards Yosuke and Masaru as he tries to push the chunk of ice away from his comrades.

With a loud roar, Geogreymon manages to shatter the ice around his head. He shakes his massive head and crawls back to his feet. He grabs the chunk of ice on top of his partner and throws it back toward Icedevimon. A fire ball and a V shaped beam explode on Icedevimon's head as he swats away the ice chunk.

"Come on guys! We need to attack him together!" Daisuke runs back into the battle field with his two dragons at his side.

"Flame Fist!" "V Breath Arrow!" "Mega Burst!" "Grenade Destroyer!" "Bless Fire!" "Volcanic Strike!" "Pummel Peck!" Icedevimon smirks at the barrage of attacks firing toward his way. He clap both of his massive hand together and a thick glacier of wall forms in front of him.

Everyone can only hear a series of loud explosion and see thick cloud of smoke at the point of impact. As the smoke start to clear, everyone sees the glacier wall still standing and Icedevimon is completely unharmed from all their effort.

"For once I wish that tactic could actually work unlike all the animations told me otherwise…" Daisuke let out a sigh of disappointment as he brings both his mecha fist in front of him in a fighting stance. Besides him both Masaru and Yosuke also manage to get on their feet.

* * *

Juri can hardly believe what is happening in front of her eyes. When she first arrives on the scene the battle is going well. Daisuke and Masaru are giving Icedevimon the most embarrassing beat down of his life. The rest of the Defenders manage to take down most of Icedevimon's army with their superior skill and Geogreymon's help. But with Icedevimon absorbing the data of all his army, the table is quickly turned against the Defenders and right now they can't seem to even harm the juggernaut made of ice.

_Wait… all his attacks are ice based. Which means… it'll be worth a shot._

"All of you find cover, I need to help them." Leomon breaks Juri's thought as he's about to leap into the battle field.

"Wait a minute! I have a plan!" Juri stops her partner as she quickly raises her hand and grabs Leomon's arm. Leomon raises one of his eye brows, but choose to honour his partner's request.

"Are you going to do something dangerous Juri?" Takato quickly turns towards his good friend and place his hand on her arm.

"We are Defenders now; every day will be dangerous afterwards." Juri let out a soft chuckle as she turns more serious as she looks at Takato in the eyes. "I have a plan to defeat Icedevimon… if it works. But in case it's not enough to finish him off… you and Guilmon will need to deal the finish blow. I know you and Guilmon can do it! Let's go Leomon!"

Takato seems to want to say something, but before he can say it out loud Juri start to sprint toward the battle with Leomon.

"I have a plan to take down Icedevimon, but it'll take a few minutes to execute. Can you buy me some time Leomon?" Juri takes out her deck of Bits Card Daisuke gives to her before them leaves the main safe zone and takes out a Power Boost Level 5.

"Consider it done." Leomon jumps into the air as Juri slot in the booster card. Strand of white data surround his arm as he fires up his 'Fist of Beast King' attack. The lion shaped energy ball hit Icedevimon right on the back of his head and makes him flinch for a few seconds. Even though the attack doesn't seem to do much damage, it successfully draws his attention to Leomon instead of Juri who runs towards the other Defenders.

"What are you doing here Juri? I told you to hide with Takato. This is not a fight for inexperienced rookie." Daisuke asks with disapproval in his voice as he notices Juri.

"I know you are much more experienced than me great leader, but I have a plan to defeat this guy." Juri points toward Icedevimon with confidence in her voice. "Geogreymon, Flamedramon and Veedramon all has naturally heat based attack right? The three of you need to attack his defence together."

"What do you think we been doing till now?" Masaru rolls his eyes as his partner Geogreymon snorts.

"Not like how you are doing. The three of you need to charge up your attack to maximum power and do it together." Juri points to Icedevimon again as he is busy dealing with Leomon who simply runs in and out of the ruin as cover and fire at Icedevimon occasionally. "Trust me, something fantastic will happen."

"Worth a shot. You guys up for one last power boost?" Daisuke lets out a shrug as he turns to regard Flamedramon and Veedramon who both look tired at this point.

"Cross stream tiny?" Veedramon gives a fist knock on Flamedramon's head.

"Cross stream, muscle head." Flamedramon swats Veedramon's fist away as he turns towards Daisuke. "Let's do this Daisuke."

"All right, last Power Boost Level 5 for the day; put on a good show, boys!" Daisuke takes out his cards and gives his two dragons a boost to return their next attack back to full power. Flamedramon start to gather his Flame Fist attack in both claws and Veedramon opens his mouth to charge up his V Breath Arrow.

"Pfft… real man don't use playing card to fight his battle. Come on Geogreymon! You have my soul flowing in your body! Let's show this clown of ice what we are made of!" Masaru spits on the ground as he cheers for Geogreymon.

"Yes Aniki!" Geogreymon gives Masaru a nod as he opens up his mouth to charge up a fire ball. But before the three of them can finish power up their respective attack Icedevimon manages to finally knock Leomon away.

"My team will buy you three some time, let's go!" Hirokazu calls out to his teammate as the four Digimon charges forward to attack Icedevimon. Who finally realizes the defenders are up to something.

Monochromon charges at Icedevimon wanting to avenge his human partner, but Icedevimon simply pushes him right into the ground with one of his claw. He lets out another hail of ice boulders against the other three Digimons. Guardromon and Sistermon who are both too exhausted from their previous fight gets buried in the avalanche of ice and snow and Kiwimon manages to jump over it. But Kiwimon gets knocked right into a Dark Spire when Icedevimon swings his arm around like a golf club.

As Icedevimon's golf club swing leaves himself wide open, Daisuke fires up his booster and lands right on top of Icedevimon's shoulder. He brings his right fist on the fallen angels head, and then his left fist as his right fist start to freeze up. "Why don't you… STAY DOWN!"

With a loud roar, he rises both his frozen mecha fist and brings them both down together on Icedevimon's forehead knocking them both tumbling toward the ground. They both crash on the snowfield in the middle of the street. Masaru rushes in and deliver another punch to Icedevimon's face as Daisuke struggles to get up with all the ice adding weight to his mecha fist.

"You two get away!" Juri takes a look at the fireball gathering in Flamedramon's claws and immediately block her eyes with her hands. The white sphere is so bright it looks like a small sun is shining in front of Flamedramon.

"You heard the lady." Daisuke let out a chuckle as he fires his back mounting booster again. While it's not enough to take him up to the sky, the added speed allows him to tackle Masaru back just as Icedevimon's arm tries to grab the angry Patroller Class.

"You are fired, popsicle!" Flamedramon roars through his teeth as he releases his fully powered up Flame Fist attack. Geogreymon shoots his Mega Burst at same time and both balls of fire seem to blend into one single ball of destructive energy and heat. Veedramon's V Breath Arrow follows right after, shooting into center of the fireball and makes it look like an arrow of flame.

"This won't work!" Icedevimon sneers as he brings both arms forward and forms his ice wall. The flame arrow crashes into the ice wall and for a split second the explosion is so brilliant night seems to turn into day.

===DDD – Log===

Equipment – Omnicloak

The signature grey cloak wore by all Defender Master Class. It is extremely hard to make which limits the number of Master Class DDD could promote every year. Due to this reason, all aspiring Patroller Classes need to apply for a promotion test and compete with each other if they hope to become a Master Class.

The Omnicloak provide even more protection against Digimon attack than the standard issue suit. In addition, it is able to generate a stealth field, enter a data 'phase' mode to not restrict a Master Classes movement in melee combat, or become dense to serve as a glider.

But the most important feature of Omnicloak and what set a Master Class Defender apart from the rest (other than Master Class may command up to thirty Digimon) is the ability to enter its battle mode. All Master Class can write their own combat program for their Omnicloak to allow them fight on par with a Champion level digimon, and charge Bits into their cloak to enter said battle mode.

===End Log===


	12. GOUing! Going! My soul! VII

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon

**Author's Note:** I must apologize to all of you who are following Spiral Nemesis for a late update. I'm currently also writing a Digimon X Sekirei crossover story 'Wing of Miracle'. It starts out as a random shelock as I got fascinated in shipping an adult Daisuke with Miya, but it develops into a full story when I realize the potential of a crossover between two franchises... and how no one is doing a Digimon X Sekirei crossover at the time. Or so I thought, Broxas The paladin actually has a story with character from both franchise but his story is a multi-franchise crossover.

I need to give a shout out to both Broxas The paladin who's a great friend and gives me a ton of great ideas, Kudaman who gives me a ton of well thought reviews, as well as everyone in Digital Connections forum who give me all the support and advice to make me confident enough to get this dream project of my off the ground. I would also like to thank everyone who read my story. Even though I'm mainly writing this story for myself and choose to share it with everyone on FFN, all of you wonderful people who read my story encourages me to keep on writing despite English is not my primary language. Thank all of you very much.

* * *

Takato watches Juri run towards the battle field with Leomon by her side. He feels torn apart at the thought of helping the only friend who never give up on him and keeping Guilmon safe. Takato feels a light tap on his hand as he turns around and sees Guilmon looking at his eyes with fierce determination.

"Takato… Guilmon can fight!"

Guilmon's resolution makes Takato think back to his talk with Hirokazu.

_Juri storms off toward the entrance of the high school building. Takato wants to quickly catch up to her and apologize for whatever he does that made Juri angry but Hirokazu quickly grabs his wrist. "What do you want Kazu! Haven't you done enough damage?"_

_To his surprise, his usually goofy old friend has a look on his face that look dead serious. "You became a Defender because of Juri didn't you? Let me guess… Juri finally joined DDD when she found her partner, and that made you panic. You either didn't want your last friend to leave you, or you were worried about her so you tag along."_

_"What are you getting at?" Takato tries to pry his arm off Hirokazu's hand. To his surprise he can't seem to shake away Hirokazu's iron grip. It is true Hirokazu is stronger than him, but right now the Supervisor's hand feels more like an iron shackle on Takato's wrist._

_"Will you fight to protect Juri? Will you make Guilmon fight to protect her?"_

_"I can fight if I want to." Takato makes one more attempt to shake Hirokazu's hand free, to his surprise the Supervisor let go of his wrist._

_"That's your answer… so be it…" Hirokazu takes a deep breath before suddenly punching Takato in the stomach. "…YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"_

_Takato's staggers back as he holds onto his stomach and gags hard before finally falls into snow under his feet. He glares at Hirokazu who is currently standing tower over him with an angry and disappointed expression on his face. "…What the hell did you do that for you lunatic?!"_

_"That's for your half assed resolution!" Hirokazu picks Takato up by his collar and stares dagger right back at the enraged rookie. "You will fight if you want to, in other words you don't actually want to fight! If you aren't prepare to grow up, than don't wear a defender's uniform like you do now! Thoughts like this will get you, Juri, or both of you killed!"_

_"So what if I don't want to fight all the time! Not everyone's as aggressive as you! And what about Guilmon! He's just a baby, what if he gets hurt or killed!"_

_"No he's not! Even if he was a baby when he first came to your home six years ago he's had plenty of time to grow up. If he's still acting like a big baby it's because you never give him a chance to grow up so you can live in your little fantasy land with Guilmon!" Hirokazu pulls his old friend even closer till their forehead touches together. Takato feels his Hirokazu's forehead burning like a bonfire before the supervisor toss him down to the ground._

_"I may not have the brain to be a Master Class like your trainer, but I been in the field as long as he is! I saw plenty of Rookies lose their lives because they don't have the resolution for what they'll face in the field! Tell me, what will you do if some big ass Digimon jumps out and attack you or Juri? Do you still hesitate on if you'll let Guilmon fight or not? One moment of weakness… that's all it takes for a Digimon to rip your head off, or burn you to ashes." Hirokazu takes a step and stand tower over Takato again. But this time the Rookie Class sees something else in his old friend's eyes: Pain. It's clear his old friend is not exaggerating on the danger of being a defender._

_"I… I don't know… I just don't want any of my friends to get hurt. Not Juri, not Guilmon, not you or Kenta… or anybody else that's still alive and out here… But I don't want to see Guilmon hurt either!" Takato looks down on his hand, feeling conflicted and a little ashamed at the same time. He's not sure if Hirokazu's accusations are true… but then again he's not sure of lots of things. He does spend the last six years of his life shut himself in his father's bakery away from the rest of the world._

_"I can't do much about how you feel, but you better man up fast." Hirokazu let out a sigh. He awkwardly extends out his hand toward Takato on the ground. "Tell me, have the Brave Master conscripted you and Juri?"_

_"Who…? What…?" Takato takes Hirokazu's hand as he's completely puzzled at what he's talking about._

_"Come on… nobody explained anything to you about how DDD works?" Hirokazu gives Takato an exasperated look as Takato shakes his head. The supervisor let out another sigh as he shakes his head while pulling his old friend up. _

_"All Master Class defender receive a title, your trainer's – Daisuke Motomiya – title is 'Brave'. There's quite a story on how he earned this title with Yamaki. I'll let the Brave Master tell you the tale himself though. But from your response I guess he didn't conscript you, which means you are not bond to serve in his team after your training session is over." Hirokazu rubs his own chin with his right hand before his face light up a little._

_"Tell you what, Master Ruki is the Overseer in the safe zone but she leaves most of running the safe zone to me. I can pull some strings, and have both you and Juri assigned to our safe zone's defending duties. That should keep all of you relatively safe; Master Ruki is a very strong Master Class – stronger than the Brave Master I might add – and we have a pretty good team here."_

_He pauses for a second before adding with a rather devious smile. "And we can play Digimon Battle Card like old time everyday, man I miss the time I used to clubber you in most of our matches."_

_"Hey, I win a lot too… but I'd like that, thank you Kazu." Takato is a bit surprised Hirokazu is being nice to him after being so angry. Than again Hirokazu has always been a steadfast friend in his own way, Takato just never really appreciate it. "Although I don't think Juri would like to be tied down, she's very head strong."_

_"That she is. Go catch up to her Takato. I don't want you to lose your chance with her because how I acted earlier." Hirokazu gives Takato a slap on the back of his head before shooing him away. Takato let out a slightly annoyed growl before he starts to walk toward the school building before Hirokazu calls out to him again. "…Takato."_

_"…Yeah?"_

_"Good to see you in the field." Hirokazu gives him a nod and a smile before walking away._

"Takato, Guilmon can fight! We need to do something to help the others!" Guilmon's urgent plead brings Takato back to reality. He notices Daisuke's two dragons, and a Geogreymon charging up their attack as Hirokazu and rest of his team's Digimon partner charge up at Icedevimon.

_I… I can fight if I WANT TO!_

"Let's go after them Guilmon! Juri give an important task to us and we can't fail her!" Takato's face hardens into determination as he looks at Guilmon again. After his short flashback about his conversation with Hirokazu he notices something: Guilmon's face looks… a little different than six years ago.

It's not some radical change that makes Guilmon into another Digimon and Takato wonders if that's the reason why he never notice it before this point. But Guilmon has no fear on his face despite seeing what a powerful creature Icedevimon is.

Takato can't help but think about how Hirokazu says he is the only reason Guilmon doesn't grow up. He's not sure if that's indeed the case, but Juri puts a lot of faith in both himself and Guilmon. He should put the same faith in Guilmon.

"Let's do it Takato!" Takato notices another thing in Guilmon's reply. The red dino drops the 'mon' when he refers to Takato. The two of them nod at each other before running towards the battle field.

Takato wonders what Juri's plan is, but he hopes it works. Icedevimon easily dispatch Hirokazu and his team's partner. But he sees Daisuke wearing a set of power armour flying to the fallen angel's face and hammering him into the ground with his mecha fist. Masaru charges in right after Daisuke and throw a hard punch into Icedevimon's face. In the distance, Juri shouts something as the three Digimon unleashes their attacks. They combine into a gigantic arrow of pure heat and light as Icedevimon puts up his defence of a glacier wall.

_Wait… I know what Juri's plan is now!_

"Take covers Guilmon!" Takato jumps into Guilmon and tackles his best friend into the back of a pile of broken rubbles. A loud boom echoes in his ear as he feels the intense heat and shock wave generates by the explosion.

"Is the battle over Takatomon?" Guilmon pops his head out of the rubble. Takato looks up from the ground and sees his Digimon friend no longer has the serious look on the face.

"I don't know. That explosion sounds powerful so I hope it did the job…" Takato also pops his head out to try and see what's happening. All he can see is smoke shrouding the area. He turns to look at his friend Guilmon and sees him trying to sniff the air. Then something happens: Guilmon's pupils slide narrower like that of a snake.

"…Takato, Digimon!" The red dino with hazard symbol doesn't remove his sight from the smoke cloud. Just as he finishes his sentence Icedevimon suddenly emerges from all the smoke. His right arm is missing, and his left arm shrinks down to its original size. In addition, there are also visible cracks on his body and one of his wings is snapped in half.

The fallen angel of ice is still very fast as he charges forward and grabs Daisuke by the neck. He yanks Takato's trainer up into air and kicks Masaru away as he starts to roar something Takato can't make out.

Both Flamedramon and Geogreymon revert back to their Rookie form and slumps into ice having used all their energy. Veedramon tries to help his master but he trips on his own feet and falls into the ground with a splash of snow and ice. Takato realize this is the moment Hirokazu speaks about.

"Go get him Guilmon!" Guilmon charges out of his cover with ferocious zeal on his face even before Takato gives the order. Takato flips open his pouch and takes out the deck of Bits Card Daisuke hand to him. He may not be a seasoned defender but he is a seasoned Digimon Battle Card player. The cards may be different, but from his old habit he arranged the cards neatly before setting out.

For Takato, that act is like a good luck ritual like how certain professional athletes would change their shirt before a match. A neatly arranged deck has no advantage to a messy deck consider all players shuffle their deck before the game start anyways. But due to this little habit, right now at this crucial moment Takato knows exactly where he needs to draw the card he needs for the situation without looking. "Speed Boost activates!"

He slides the card into his D2K as a white strand of data shoots out and wraps around Guilmon. Guilmon's sprint becomes a blurred dash as he opens his mouth. "Pyro Sphere!"

The red ball of destructive energy hits Icedevimon's cracked shoulder as his arm falls off leaving Daisuke gagging for air on the floor. Icedevimon turns around with a shocked face as Guilmon charges into him and bits his neck.

"Get away from me you damnable pest!" The unarmed fallen angel screams and kicks as he takes off into sky while shaking awkwardly. He manage to throw Guilmon off him and plummet into the ground but before the red dino makes impact another strand of data envelop Guilmon and makes six pair of white wings grow on his back.

Guilmon flips in the sky and charges back at Icedevimon again. The fallen angel tries to kick him away, but he Icedevimon is clearly not as skilled with his leg as his arms and Guilmon easily parries the kick with claws. Guilmon rams into Icedevimon's chest, makes the fallen angel tumbles and his neck start to crack more.

"Last trick, Power Boost Level 5! finish him off boy!" Takato takes out his power boost card as he cheers Guilmon on with an unusual bloodlust. Takato is usually a gentle, but after seeing Icedevimon crushing one of the defender with his ice and seeing how he tries to kill Daisuke make the Rookie realize he has to put an end to the fallen angel.

"Pyro Sphere!" Guilmon's mouth light up with the same energy as Veedramon. He shoots a fire ball as large as Geogreymon's attack out of his mouth at Icedevimon. The attack is slower than his usual Pyro Sphere, but Icedevimon is unable to cover from earlier tumble due to damaged wings.

"No! It can't end like this! No~" The fallen angel of ice left one last twisted scream before the red ball of destruction collide into him. His entire body cracks up and disintegrate in the attack.

"Good work Guilmon! You were wonderful!" Takato runs out of the pile of rubble he uses as cover and toward Guilmon whose wings disappear as he lands on the ground. He tackles his best friend into snow as they tumble, rolls and giggles before both falls on their back. Daisuke who is no longer wearing his power armour walks up to them with Masaru, Juri and Hirokazu.

"Nice job you did back here Takato… and you saved my neck too. No pun intended." Daisuke has his usual goofy grin on his face as he extends both of his hand to Takato and Guilmon and pulls them both up.

"Like a real man, nicely done rookie." Masaru gives a smirk as he nods at the pair.

"I always known you two had it in you!" Juri pulls Takato and Guilmon both into an embrace. "Now we just need to find my prince and then get some rest."

"It's a shame for Rin… but him known what he's signing onto when he became a defender. At least you avenged him." Hirokazu looks back at Kaede and Asa giving each other an embrace with tears in their eyes, he shakes head and gives Takato and Guilmon a pat on their shoulder.

"Someone speaking about me?" All of them look up and sees a man being carried by his shoulder by a Harpymon flying over their head. "You can drop me off now Harpymon… and thank you for saving me back there."

"Master Ruki doesn't like her safe zone being destroyed, and her team being killed. Have fun with the girls." The armoured bird gives a smile with her red mask like face before hurling Rin towards Kaede and Asa.

"Rin!" Both girl jumps on the hapless Patroller Class before his feet even touches the ground and they all falls into snow in a heap.

"You are here, Harpymon! Does that means Master Ruki finally made back?" Hirokazu's face light up before darkening up again. "Well… she'll be pissed at me when she sees this mess."

"Master Ruki was able to close the fissure, she send me back first since I'm her fastest." Harpymon answers with pride in her voice as she lands beside the Supervisor. "Don't worry about it Kazu, I'm sure she's satisfied with how her team performed in her absence."

"Let's hope your speculation is right… for my sake." Hirokazu let out a shiver as he walks toward his team. "All right, get off Rin you girls and we need to go find…oh dear lord…"

Before he finishes his sentence Monochromon dashes pass Hirokazu and slam on top of the three Patroller Class with a belly flop. Rin lets out a frustrated scream while Yosuke shakes his head and runs to his friend's aid as he tries to pull the three Patroller Class defenders from under Monochromon's huge head.

"If all of you welcome me back by trying to murder me… ALL OF YOU ARE DOING A DAMN FINE JOB!"

"I take my words back Hirokazu, Master Ruki will be pissed when she sees this. You better prepare to feel her wrath." Harpymon says with a sly smile on her face while the Supervisor face palm and curses under his breath.

As if on cue, a yellow fox with nine tails suddenly jumps off a building and lands right in front of Hirokazu. A girl with short red hair tied in a pigtail and wearing DDD's blue jumpsuit and Master Class' signature grey cloak sits on top of the fox. She gives Hirokazu a glance with the corner of her cold eyes. "Care to explain, Patroller Class Shioda?"

"This is just not my day…"

===DDD – Log===

Equipment – Digiboy Model 2000

Commonly referred to as D2K, it is standard issue Digiboy for Defender Rookie Class field operatives. It's the most basic model of Defender to Digimon interface which binds a Digimon to a Defender. It has basic feature such as using Bit Cards to temporarily enhance a Rookie Class' Digimon partner, or activate a live program card as well as tracking the vital of Rookie Class' Digimon's vitality.

All field operative eventually upgrade D2K to a D25, due to the negative effect of only relying on Bits Card to enhance Digimon.

===End Log===


End file.
